The Basic Psychological Needs at Work Scale: Measurement Invariance between Canada and France
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the Basic Psychological Needs at Work Scale (BPNWS) in French, but items are also provided in English in the article. The BPNWS is a work‐related self‐report instrument designed to measure the degree to which the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as identified by Self‐Determination Theory (), are satisfied at work. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the first study examines the structure of the BPNWS in a group of 271 workers. The second study tests the measurement invariance of the scale in a group of 851 teachers from two different cultures, Canada and France. Results support the three‐factor structure and show adequate internal consistency, as well as nomological validity across samples.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A variety of Basic Psychological Need scales have been adapted to specific contexts, such as exercise, school, and work.
“Further, a variety of scales were adapted to specific contexts, such as the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale (Vlachopoulos et al., 2010), the Basic Psychological Needs at School Scale (Tian, Han, & Huebner, 2014), and the Basic Psychological Needs at Work Scale (Brien et al., 2012).”
From Development and Validation of a Basic Psychological Needs Scale for Technology Use (2024) · cites this paper as Brien et al., 2012
Cites
The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1207/s15327965pli1104_01 · Cited by 34,210 · see citing works
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037//0003-066x.55.1.68 · Cited by 27,815 · see citing works
Maslow, A. H. (1943) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/h0054346 · Cited by 21,563 · see citing works
Evaluating Goodness-of-Fit Indexes for Testing Measurement Invariance
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002) · Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal · doi:10.1207/s15328007sem0902_5 · Cited by 16,280 · see citing works
Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.67.6.1063 · Cited by 7,456 · see citing works
Deci, E. L. (1975) · doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-4446-9 · Cited by 2,911 · see citing works
Daily Well-Being: The Role of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness
Reis, H. T., Sheldon, K. M., Gable, S. L., Roscoe, J., & Ryan, R. M. (2000) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167200266002 · Cited by 2,067 · see citing works
Harlow, H. F. (1958) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/h0047884 · Cited by 2,022 · cited 1× · see citing works
“The need for relatedness refers to the desire to establish mutually caring bonds and positive alliances with others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Deci & Ryan, 2002, p. 7; Harlow, 1958).”
BackgroundA comparison of some methodologies for the factor analysis of non‐normal Likert variables
Muthén, B., & Kaplan, D. (1985) · British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8317.1985.tb00832.x · Cited by 1,778 · see citing works
What is satisfying about satisfying events? Testing 10 candidate psychological needs.
Sheldon, K. M., Elliot, A. J., Kim, Y., & Kasser, T. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.2.325 · Cited by 1,694 · see citing works
Van den Broeck, A., Vansteenkiste, M., De Witte, H., Soenens, B., & Lens, W. (2010) · Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1348/096317909x481382 · Cited by 1,305 · see citing works
Vansteenkiste, M., Neyrinck, B., Niemiec, C. P., Soenens, B., De Witte, H., & Van den Broeck, A. (2007) · Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1348/096317906x111024 · Cited by 750 · see citing works
The path taken: Consequences of attaining intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations in post-college life
Niemiec, C. P., Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2009) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2008.09.001 · Cited by 509 · see citing works
It's not just the amount that counts: Balanced need-satisfaction also affects well-being
Sheldon, K. M., & Niemiec, C. P. (2006) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.2.331 · Cited by 454 · see citing works
Lynch, M. F., Plant, R. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2005) · Professional Psychology: Research and Practice · doi:10.1037/0735-7028.36.4.415 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Desrumaux, P., Lapointe, D., Ntsame Sima, M., Boudrias, J.-S., Savoie, A., & Brunet, L. (2015) · European Review of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.erap.2015.06.003 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Self-citationJungert, T., Van den Broeck, A., Schreurs, B., & Osterman, U. (2018) · Applied Psychology · doi:10.1111/apps.12110 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Sánchez-Oliva, D., Morin, A. J. S., Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Palmeira, A. L., & Silva, M. N. (2017) · Journal of Vocational Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2016.12.001 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Development and Validation of a Basic Psychological Needs Scale for Technology Use
Moradbakhti, L., Leichtmann, B., & Mara, M. (2024) · Psychological Test Adaptation and Development · doi:10.1027/2698-1866/a000062 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
- Authors
- Brien, M., Forest, J., Mageau, G. A., Boudrias, J., Desrumaux, P., Brunet, L., & Morin, E. M.
- Affiliations
- Université de Montréal (CA)
- Université du Québec à Montréal (CA)
- Université de Lille (FR)
- HEC Montréal (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Brien, Maryse
- Venue
- Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-02-22
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 167-187
- ISSN
- 1758-0846 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-0854
- OpenAlex
- W1894412492
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 9.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Psychology Health and Well-Being (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- basic psychological needs, autonomy, competence, relatedness, self-determination theory, scale validation, measurement invariance, cross-cultural measurement, teachers, employee motivation, French translation
- MeSH terms
- Optimism, Adult, Aged, Canada, Faculty, Female, France, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Motivation, Personal Satisfaction, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Stress, Psychological, Work, Reproducibility of Results, Workplace, Self Efficacy, Personal Autonomy, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
