The basic psychological needs in physical education scale in Filipino

Abstract

The Basic Psychological Needs in Physical Education Scale (BPNPE Scale: Vlachopoulos, Katarzi, & Kontou, 2011) is a short instrument grounded in Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000; 2002), designed to measure fulfillment of students’ basic needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness in physical education context. The Greek version of this instrument has been reported to have adequate factor structure and strong internal reliability. Instruments developed in other culture need to be examined using a sample from the target culture in order to establish its cultural utility.

The primary aim of this study was to explore the factor structure, construct validity, and reliability of the Filipino BPNPE Scale. The secondary purpose was to test whether after-school sports participation is associated with students’ experience of needs fulfillment, autonomy support, and subjective vitality in physical education. The instrument was first translated to conversational Filipino via committee-approach back-translation procedure. Four hundred and eight (N = 408) Filipino high school students completed a two-page questionnaire assessing their needs fulfillment in physical education, as well as perceived teacher-autonomy support, and subjective vitality.

Principal axis factoring with direct oblimin rotation extracted a simple three-factor structure explaining 61.38% of the total variance. Individually, factor 1 accounted for 42.45% of the total variance, while the remaining two provided an additional 10.5% and 8.43%, respectively. These correlated factors (Range: .51 - .63) were consequently labeled as Relatedness need (4 items; α = .76), Competence need (4 items; α = .83), and Autonomy need fulfillment (2 items; α = .64). These three factors were significantly correlated with autonomy support and subjective vitality (Range: .37 - .47) supporting construct validity. However, test-retest reliability was weak and inadequate.

Additional analyses indicated that after-school sports participation had a significant effect on students’ experience of subjective vitality in physical education. More specifically, girls who participated in after-school sports experienced higher subjective vitality in physical education compared to their peers.

In summary, findings of this study provide preliminary support to the Filipino BPNPE Scale as a valid tool to assess basic psychological needs in physical education among Filipino high school students. Nevertheless, further scale revision and item refinement is necessary. The contribution of after-school sports participation to students’ experiences in PE is also highlighted.