Basic psychological need satisfaction in active commuting to and from school BPNS-ACS(SWE)

Abstract

Background: The absence of appropriate Swedish-language instrumentation to assess active commuting to school has largely hampered the study of the individual factors of the children, such as autonomy, competence, and relatedness to active commuting to school. Purpose: Building upon self-determination theory, the objective of this research was to gather evidence of the validity and reliability of the Swedish version of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction in Active Commuting to and from School (BPNS-ACS) tool. Methods: The cross-sectional and purposive sample included 273 children (51.28% girls) from urban areas. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis underpinned the three-factor correlated model, which was invariant across gender. Evidence in support of discriminant and convergent validity and reli- ability was gathered. Criterion validity evidence was met by positive and significant predictions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction on active commuting to and from school. Conclusions: The Swedish version of the BPNS-ACS is a psychometrically robust measure of children’s perceptions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction in active commuting to school and could be used to assess the effects of school-based interventions on need satisfaction for active commuting to school.