The basic psychological need scale (bps) – construct and predictive validity among middle school students with the incorporation of the novelty in the polish context

The content of this article focuses on the construct validity of the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPS) within middle school students in Poland. The assessment of students' level of fulfilment of psychological needs can be a powerful tool in enhancing and understanding students' functioning in the school environment and their psychological growth (Deci and Ryan, 2000; Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2002). Theoretical consideration is based on Self-determination theory (SDT) by Deci and Ryan (2000). Theoretical viewpoint is the basis of the empirical part of this article. However, there is still no Polish equivalent to the English version of this questionnaire, validated among middle school students. It was assumed that the aim of the present study was to adapt, validate and determine the psychometric properties of the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPS) on a Polish student sample, consisting of 200 teenagers, ages 14–17 from middle schools. First, the translation-back-translation method was used to ensure the linguistic equivalence of the Polish questionnaire. Second, Alpha Cronbach's coefficient was used to determine the level of reliability of individual variables. Third, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to recognize whether there is statistically significant correlation between variables. Then, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to check if there is a statistically significant difference between more than two groups of variables. The final version of the Basic Need Satisfaction in General, the Basic Need Satisfaction at Work and the Basic Need Satisfaction in Relationships consists of 46 items 3 dimensions: the need for autonomy-16 items, the need of competences-12 items, the need for relatedness-18 items. The discriminatory powers of the item: the need of autonomy is: α = 0.734, which proves the high reliability of this dimension. The discriminatory power of the item the needs of competences is: α = 0.675, which testifies to the satisfactory reliability of this dimension while the discriminatory power of the item the needs of relatedness is: α = 0.705 which proves the high reliability of this dimension. The measurement showed good convergent and discriminant validity with other related questionnaires. In summary, the Polish Basic Psychological Needs questionnaire is a reliable and valid self-report instrument for the assessment of the level of fulfill psychological needs within the school environment.