IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/ijrvet/331544.html

The role of basic psychological needs satisfaction in Finnish vocational students' school burnout and dropout intentions

Author

Listed:
  • Pylväs, Laura
  • Nokelainen, Petri

Abstract

Purpose: This study examined how vocational education and training (VET) students' satisfaction of basic psychological needs in VET learning environments, namely autonomy, competence, and relatedness, is related to their burnout and intention to leave VET. Self- Determination Theory was employed in the study. The aim of the study was to contribute to the existing body of empirical knowledge on basic psychological needs in educational contexts, with a particular focus on their role in negative processes. The findings may assist in evaluating the potential of basic psychological needs support in enhancing student motivation and well-being in VET learning environments. Methods: Cross-sectional online survey data were collected in 2023 from 255 students at a large vocational institution in Finland. The questionnaire included the following factors from three validated scales: Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction - Work Domain (BPNS-WD; "autonomy", "competence", "relatedness"), School Burnout Inventory (SBI; "exhaustion", "cynicism"), and dropout intentions. Data were analysed in R using correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. Results: The results indicated that the factors of basic psychological needs were negatively associated with the two burnout factors and the factor of dropout intentions, confirming our hypotheses. However, the hypotheses were only partially confirmed as not all associations reached statistical significance. Contrary to our hypothesis, relatedness satisfaction was positively related to burnout cynicism, although the relationship was not statistically significant. Conclusions: The findings suggest that supporting the basic psychological needs of VET students may reduce school burnout and the intention to drop out of school. Nevertheless, further research is required at the institutional and workplace levels to investigate the potential influence of perceived social relatedness on the development of burnout cynicism, and vice versa. Furthermore, the results indicated that female students, as well as those with older age or less work experience, experienced more burnout exhaustion than other respondents. A more comprehensive analysis is needed to gain better understanding of the factors that increase exhaustion within these groups of students.

Suggested Citation

  • Pylväs, Laura & Nokelainen, Petri, 2025. "The role of basic psychological needs satisfaction in Finnish vocational students' school burnout and dropout intentions," International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association, vol. 12(2), pages 236-265.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ijrvet:331544
    DOI: 10.13152/IJRVET.12.2.4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/331544/1/194079868X.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.13152/IJRVET.12.2.4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonia Nawrocka & Hans De Witte & Margherita Pasini & Margherita Brondino, 2023. "A Person-Centered Approach to Job Insecurity: Is There a Reciprocal Relationship between the Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Job Insecurity?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-27, March.
    2. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Yang, Feifan & Chu, Rongwei & Chen, Zhijun, 2026. "Bitter or better: how social comparison emotions drive coworker altruism and ostracism in response to job crafting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    4. Masashi Soga & Kevin J. Gaston & Yuichi Yamaura & Kiyo Kurisu & Keisuke Hanaki, 2016. "Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children’s Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-12, May.
    5. César Merino-Soto & Gina Chávez-Ventura & Verónica López-Fernández & Guillermo M. Chans & Filiberto Toledano-Toledano, 2022. "Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-L): Psychometric and Measurement Invariance Evidence in Peruvian Undergraduate Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Nathaniel Oliver Iotti & Damiano Menin & Tomas Jungert, 2022. "Early Adolescents’ Motivations to Defend Victims of Cyberbullying," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-9, July.
    7. AJ Golio, 2024. "Whose Neighborhood Now? Gentrification and Community Life in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods," Working Papers 24-29, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. Peter Tavel & Bibiana Jozefiakova & Peter Telicak & Jana Furstova & Michal Puza & Natalia Kascakova, 2022. "Psychometric Analysis of the Shortened Version of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale on the Slovak Population (SWBS-Sk)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, January.
    9. Allen, Jaime & Eboli, Laura & Forciniti, Carmen & Mazzulla, Gabriella & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "The role of critical incidents and involvement in transit satisfaction and loyalty," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 57-69.
    10. Katharina Groskurth & Constanze Beierlein & Désirée Nießen & Anna Baumert & Beatrice Rammstedt & Clemens M Lechner, 2023. "An English-Language adaptation and validation of the Justice Sensitivity Short Scales–8 (JSS-8)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(11), pages 1-22, November.
    11. Christoph Dworschak, 2024. "Bias mitigation in empirical peace and conflict studies: A short primer on posttreatment variables," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(3), pages 462-476, May.
    12. Andreea-Ionela Puiu & Anca Monica Ardeleanu & Camelia Cojocaru & Anca Bratu, 2021. "Exploring the Effect of Status Quo, Innovativeness, and Involvement Tendencies on Luxury Fashion Innovations: The Mediation Role of Status Consumption," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, May.
    13. Slupphaug, KJell & Mehmetoglu, Mehmet & Mittner, Matthias, 2024. "modsem: An R package for estimating latent interactions and quadratic effects," OSF Preprints h3rpw, Center for Open Science.
    14. Andres Trujillo-Barrera & Joost M. E. Pennings & Dianne Hofenk, 2016. "Understanding producers' motives for adopting sustainable practices: the role of expected rewards, risk perception and risk tolerance," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 43(3), pages 359-382.
    15. Daria J. Kuss & Lydia Harkin & Eiman Kanjo & Joel Billieux, 2018. "Problematic Smartphone Use: Investigating Contemporary Experiences Using a Convergent Design," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, January.
    16. Allen, Jaime & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "On evasion behaviour in public transport: Dissatisfaction or contagion?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 626-651.
    17. Cloarec, Julien, 2022. "Privacy controls as an information source to reduce data poisoning in artificial intelligence-powered personalization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 144-153.
    18. Merkle, Edgar C. & Steyvers, Mark & Mellers, Barbara & Tetlock, Philip E., 2017. "A neglected dimension of good forecasting judgment: The questions we choose also matter," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 817-832.
    19. Sai-fu Fung & Esther Oi-wah Chow & Chau-kiu Cheung, 2020. "Development and Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of a Brief Wisdom Development Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-14, April.
    20. Zou, Yuxuan & Wang, Donggen, 2025. "Differences in the influence of the built environment and physical activity on obesity in urban and suburban contexts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 372(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:ijrvet:331544. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://vetnetsite.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.