Exploring the Relationships among Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration, Agentic Engagement, Motivation, and Self-Determination in Adolescents with Disabilities

Researchers have separately explored applications and implications of the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Causal Agency Theory in the school context; however, limited attention has been directed to examining the relations between constructs emerging from SDT (agentic engagement, motivation, and basic needs satisfaction and frustration) and the Causal Agency Theory (self-determination and its essential characteristics—volitional action, agentic action, and action-control beliefs), as well as the use of measures developed to assess these constructs in adolescents with disabilities. We examined the reliability of measures emerging from both theories in adolescents with disabilities, and explored the pattern of means, correlations, and predictive relations among the constructs. We found adequate reliability, and unique patterns of correlations and predictive relationships among the constructs. Adolescents with disabilities showed higher levels of need satisfaction than frustration, as well as moderately high levels of self-determination and agentic engagement, consistent with other research with students with and without disabilities. The findings highlight the role of constructs from positive psychology in the lives of students with and without disabilities and the need for more research that includes students with disabilities and explores their experiences alongside their peers without disabilities in developing causal agency.