Examining the effects of basic psychological needs and life satisfaction levels on tendencies to violence of 10-14 aged middle school students

This research is a predictive correlational study that aims to examine the effects of 10-14-year-old middle school students' basic psychological needs, and life satisfaction levels on their tendencies to violence. In the study, it was aimed to acknowledge and evaluate middle school students better by associating demographic variables (school type, sex, age, grade level, parents' education levels) with violence tendency, basic psychological needs, and life satisfaction. The population of the research consists of middle school students who are studying at private and public schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education located in the province of Çekmeköy in Istanbul in 2016-2017 academic year; while the sample consists of a total of 470 students that study at Private European Middle School and Nükte Sözen Middle School. "Basic Psychological Needs Scale", "Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale", "Violence Tendency Scale" and "Personal Information Form" developed by the researcher were used as data collection tools. Independent Samples t-test, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Regression and Correlation analyzes of the data were performed using the SPSS package program. When the scores were examined as a result of the research, it was found that the Competence Need subdimension of Basic Psychological Needs, School, Living Environment, and Self subdimensions of Life Satisfaction significantly predict Violence Tendency, and that the participants who received high scores from family life satisfaction received low scores from violence tendency. In addition, participants with high Violence Tendency scores had lower scores from autonomy, competence, and relatedness need subscales of basic psychological needs. Keywords: basic psychological needs, life satisfaction, violence tendency