A Self-Support Approach to Satisfy Basic Psychological Needs During Difficult Situations

We tested whether a self-support approach to satisfy basic psychological needs to increase students’ basic need satisfaction, mindfulness, and subjective vitality, and decrease their need frustration, coronavirus, and test anxiety during the novel coronavirus and university final exams. Three hundred and thirty students (Mage = 21.45, SD = 2.66) participated in this six-day long experimental study and they were randomly allocated to either experimental (self-support approach, n = 176) or control (no-intervention) condition. Students completed the targeted questionnaires at the beginning (first day of the university final exams, Time 1) middle (three days after the beginning of the study, Time 2), and the end of study (six days after the beginning of the study, Time 3). Compared to students in the control condition, students in the experimental condition reported higher need satisfaction, mindfulness, subjective vitality, and lower need frustration, coronavirus, and test anxiety. Through a path analysis, the experimental condition predicted positively students higher need satisfaction, which in turn, predicted their higher subjective vitality, and lower coronavirus and test anxiety at Time 3. Results highlighted the importance of a self-support approach on students’ outcomes during difficult situations, that have implications for theory and practice.