Van den Bogaard, Daphne;
Soenens, Bart;
Brenning, Katrijn;
Van Hees, Valérie;
Vrijders, Berdien;
Bradt, Lowie;
Luyten, Patrick;
(2025)
How to support college students’ pro-active search for psychological need satisfaction? Testing an online intervention that fosters need crafting.
Motivation and Emotion
10.1007/s11031-025-10149-7.
(In press).
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Abstract
Research within the framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) convincingly shows that support of individuals’ basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence yields manifold benefits. Recently, scholars have started to explore whether and how individuals can pro-actively steer their own need-based functioning, known as need crafting. The current preregistered intervention among college students (N = 582; Mage = 23.11) examined the effectiveness of LifeCraft, an online intervention program that aims to foster need crafting. In a randomized controlled trial LifeCraft is compared to a passive and an active control condition, with the latter targeting executive functioning. Results showed that LifeCraft predicted greater need satisfaction and lower need frustration relative to participants in the passive control group, but not those in the active control group. Changes in need-based functioning, in turn, predicted changes in well-being. Program benefits persisted one month later during a stressful exam period, but faded out during summer holidays. Participants who were highly engaged in the program reaped more benefits from the LifeCraft training. This work sheds light on the underexplored premise that individuals can proactively take action to satisfy their basic needs. Overall, the present study provides deeper insights into the conditions under which need crafting can be effectively trained, the circumstances in which students benefit from the training, and the individual differences that explain variability in its effectiveness.
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