Teachers’ Verbal and Nonverbal Communication, Students’ Psychological Needs, and Positive and Negative Outcomes in Physical Education

Abstract

Focused on physical education (PE), this study examined the association between teachers’ communication and students’ psychological needs, enjoyment/boredom, PE usefulness, and students’ grade perception. Participants were 1,000 students (572 girls; Mage = 14.58 ± 0.65) from 29 Spanish secondary schools. A path model including variables measured at three times was tested: teachers’ verbal/nonverbal communication (Time 1), needs satisfaction/frustration (Time 2), and PE outcomes (Time 3). Verbal communication positively predicted needs satisfaction, which, in turn, positively predicted enjoyment, PE usefulness, and students’ grade perception and negatively predicted boredom. Verbal communication negatively predicted needs frustration, which was a positive predictor of boredom. Multigroup analysis showed that gender did not moderate the associations in the path model, whereas mediating effects were found between teachers’ communication and consequences via students’ psychological needs. Teachers should improve their communicative capacities to satisfy students’ psychological needs and promote positive PE  outcomes.