Basic psychological needs as predictor of subjective vitality in adolescents: The mediating role of self-compassion

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between basic psychological needs and subjective vitality in adolescents. The study group consists of a total of 632 students, 336 girls and 296 boys, from the 9th, 10th and 11th grades of high schools in Adana. The study collected data on students' personal information with the Personal Information Form, data on subjective vitality Subjective Vitality Scale (Ryan & Frederick, 1997), data on basic psychological needs with the Need Satisfaction Scale (Deci & Ryan, 1991), and data on self-compassion with the Self-Compassion Scale Short Form (Raes vd., 2011). The relationship between adolescents' level of subjective vitality, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and level of self-compassion was examined using the Pearson Product Moments Correlation. The mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between subjective vitality and basic psychological needs was analyzed using Process Macro, developed by Hayes (2013). SPSS 25 and Process Macro v4.1 programs were used for statistical analysis of the data, and the values suggested by Preacher and Kelley (2011) were used as the basis for interpreting the effect size of mediation. According to the research results, positive relationships were found between subjective vitality, basic psychological needs and self-compassion. Positive relationships were found between the subdimensions of basic psychological needs, namely autonomy, competence, and relatedness and subjective vitality and self-compassion. Autonomy, competence, relatedness were found the significantly predict subjective vitality and self-compassion. In the mediation analysis conducted with Process Macro, the mediating role of self-compassion between autonomy, competence and relatedness and subjective vitality was found. Keywords: Subjective vitality, basic psychological needs, self-compassion