Competence need satisfaction is the strongest psychological-need predictor of students' self-determined motivation types¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (3 entries) · quant-synthesisr3·q3·i2medium
Currency · newest study 2022 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 3 of 3 entries) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
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This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i2 In meta-analytic structural equation modeling, competence was the strongest predictor of amotivation (β = −.23 to −.30), identified regulation (β = .31 to .34), and intrinsic motivation (β = .33). → Bureau 2022
q3 i? In relative weight analysis, identified regulation (R2 = .30) was most strongly predicted by competence (44%), followed by autonomy (30%) and relatedness (26%). → Bureau 2022 (2)
q3 i? In relative weight analysis, intrinsic motivation (R2 = .38) was predicted similarly by autonomy (39%) and competence (42%), with relatedness less important (18%). → Bureau 2022 (3)
Evidence¶
Bureau 2022¶
Bureau, J. S., Howard, J. L., Chong, J. X. Y., & Guay, F. (2022). Pathways to Student Motivation: A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents of Autonomous and Controlled Motivations. Review of Educational Research, 92(1), 46–72. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543211042426
q3 · i2 · quant-synthesis · r3
Weighted-covariance GLS meta-analytic structural equation modeling, run as three models because parental autonomy support had too few samples to impute: one with all variables and pairwise deletion (k = 2–71 per correlation), one with multiple imputation and no parental autonomy support (k = 7–71), and one with pairwise deletion and no parental autonomy support (k = 7–71), from a database of 144 samples. Across the three models, "Competence was the strongest predictor of amotivation (β = −.23 to −.30), identified regulation (β = .31 to .34), and intrinsic motivation (β = .33)".
"Competence was the strongest predictor of amotivation (β = −.23 to −.30), identified regulation (β = .31 to .34), and intrinsic motivation (β = .33)."
Bureau 2022 (2)¶
Bureau, J. S., Howard, J. L., Chong, J. X. Y., & Guay, F. (2022). Pathways to Student Motivation: A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents of Autonomous and Controlled Motivations. Review of Educational Research, 92(1), 46–72. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543211042426
q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r3
Relative weight analysis on meta-analytic correlations between needs and motivation types, estimating unique variance per need with multicollinearity suppressed. Identified regulation (R2 = .30) "was most strongly predicted by competence (44%), followed by autonomy (30%) and relatedness (26%)".
"Identified regulation (R2 = .30) was most strongly predicted by competence (44%), followed by autonomy (30%) and relatedness (26%)."
Bureau 2022 (3)¶
Bureau, J. S., Howard, J. L., Chong, J. X. Y., & Guay, F. (2022). Pathways to Student Motivation: A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents of Autonomous and Controlled Motivations. Review of Educational Research, 92(1), 46–72. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543211042426
q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r3
Relative weight analysis of need satisfaction predicting intrinsic motivation from the pooled meta-analytic correlations. The analysis found "intrinsic motivation (R2 = .38) was predicted in a similar way by autonomy (39%) and competence (42%), but relatedness was less important (18%)".
"Finally, intrinsic motivation (R2 = .38) was predicted in a similar way by autonomy (39%) and competence (42%), but relatedness was less important (18%)."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Education context moderates need–motivation links: amotivation is more strongly negatively related to autonomy and relatedness in classroom than physical education samples — related
- Psychological needs correlate more strongly with more self-determined motivation types, from intrinsic motivation down to near-zero with external regulation — related
- Satisfaction of basic psychological needs is positively associated with autonomous motivation, with competence the strongest predictor — related
- Student age and sample gender composition moderate associations between motivation antecedents and motivation types — related
- Competence is the strongest independent psychological predictor of AI literacy performance, followed by autonomy; relatedness has no significant independent effect — related
- Teacher autonomy support predicts students' need satisfaction and self-determined motivation more strongly than parental autonomy support — related
- Need satisfaction and autonomy support did not predict external regulation, and introjected associations did not hold in the full model — related
- In EERs, autonomy, competence, and relatedness are each supported by specific design features per self-determination theory — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
competence-strongest-need-predictor-student-motivation |
title |
Competence need satisfaction is the strongest psychological-need predictor of students' self-determined motivation types |
description |
Competence need satisfaction is the strongest psychological-need predictor of students' self-determined motivation types |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2022 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-20 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
3 — bureau-2022, bureau-2022-2, bureau-2022-3 |
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