The relationship between psychological needs satisfaction and perceived stress in emerging adults: The mediating role of self-regulation

The study aimed to examine the mediating role of self-regulation in the relationship between psychological needs satisfaction and perceived stress in emerging adults. The study is descriptive and relational survey model is used. The study group consists of 396 university students studying at different universities and grade levels in the fields of Foreign Language, Turkish-Mathematics, Science, Mathematics, Social and Fine Arts in the 2020-2021 academic year. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Need Satisfaction Scale (NSS) and Self-Regulation Scale (SRS) were used as data collection tools in the study. The data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS statistical programs. In the analysis of the obtained data, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficent was used to calculate descriptive statistics and the relationship between variables. Simple linear regression analysis was used to determine the effects of psychological needs satisfaction on perceived stress through self-regulation. The significance of the indirect effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable was tested with the bootstrap method. Findings showed that there was a negative significant relationships between perceived stress and satisfaction of psychological needs, and there was a negative significant relationship between perceived stress and self-regulation. In addition, positive significant relationship were found between self-regulation and the psychological needs satisfaction. Mediation analysis, results showed that self-regulation played a partial mediating role in the relationship between perceived stress and the psychological needs satisfaction. Findings were discussed in the context of the relevant literature and recommendations were made for future studies. Keywords: perceived stress, autonomy, competence, relatedness, self-regulation, need satisfaction