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Building upon self-determination theory, the objective of this research was to examine the predictive associations of pre-service physical education (PE) teachers’ basic psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness, and novelty) with their academic engagement via the quality of their motivation. A purposive sample of 920 pre-service PE teachers (569 men and 351 women; M age = 24.73; SD = 5.34) participated in this cross-sectional research. The results from structural equation modeling revealed that autonomy, competence, and novelty satisfaction positively predicted autonomous motivation, and negatively predicted amotivation. While competence satisfaction positively predicted controlled motivation, novelty satisfaction did it negatively. Autonomous motivation and controlled motivation positively predicted academic engagement, while amotivation was negatively associated with it. This research underscores the importance of considering pre-service PE teachers’ autonomy, competence, and, specially, novelty satisfaction in promoting their autonomous motivation and academic engagement in initial teacher education program.

This research aimed to adapt and psychometrically examine the Multidimensional Perceived Autonomy Support Scale in Physical Education in the Spanish context. The participants were 560 (264 men and 296 women; M age = 14.49, SD age = 1.05) physical education secondary school students. The results underpinned a 15-item three-factor correlated model, which was invariant across gender and age. The reliability analysis reflected an acceptable level of internal consistency and temporal stability for each factor. The structural equation modeling showed that perceived cognitive, procedural, and organizational autonomy support predicted positively and significantly basic psychological need satisfaction. The Multidimensional Perceived Autonomy Support Scale in Physical Education is a valid and reliable instrument to multidimensionally measure the secondary school students’ perception of autonomy support from physical education teachers in the Spanish context.