Basic psychological need satisfaction and psychological well-being of Filipino male and female adolescents

This descriptive - correlation study sought to determine to what extent four psychological need constructs (autonomy, competence, relatedness, self-esteem) predicted subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect). It also tried to find out if predictor models would differ between the male and female Filipino selected high school students of two Catholic schools aged 11 17. Three hundred three participants completed the Need Satisfaction Scale, Student Life Satisfaction Scale, Positive and Negative Affect for Children. Statistical tools used were means and standard deviations, t test, Pearsons Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis at .05 level of significance using SPSS Version 11.5. Based on the findings, the four psychological needs have different combined effects in predicting subjective well-being. Satisfaction of self-esteem needs emerged as a strong and consistent predictor across the three subjective well-being measures of life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect. Satisfaction of self-esteem alone can predict life satisfaction and negative affect among female Filipino adolescents. The joint effect of the fulfillment of self-esteem and competency needs is significant in predicting life satisfaction (F (2, 300) = 37.465, p = .000) and negative affect (F (2, 300), p = .001). The combined effects of self-esteem, autonomy and relatedness satisfaction is significant in predicting positive emotions (F (3,299) = 23.789, p = .000). For males, the best set of predictors of life satisfaction is the combined effects of self-esteem and relatedness. For the males, the best set of predictors of negative affect is the combined effects of self-esteem and competence needs. iv This suggests that psychological need satisfaction construct may be more relevant in explaining positive affect than life satisfaction and negative affect well-being measures. Further, this study strengthened Reyess (2004) implicit theory of the happy Filipino, which suggests that when Filipinos adolescents conceptualize happiness, they usually put importance in endorsing individualist (self-esteem, autonomy, competence) and collectivist attributes (relatedness)