Teacher Autonomous Motivation and Academic Satisfaction: Indirect Effects Through Self-efficacy and Autonomy Support in Chilean University Students

Abstract

Introduction. Teacher motivation is a fundamental factor in the development of learning. Alt-hough many studies research its direct effects, fewer studies analyze its indirect effects through multilevel designs. Therefore, the study aims to evaluate the indirect effect of teacher autono-mous motivation on the academic satisfaction of Chilean university students. Method. At the individual level, 708 Chilean university students participated. 59.2% of the students were female (n = 419) and 40.8% were male (n = 289). At the group level, 30 teachers participated, of which 56.7% were female (n = 17) and 43.3% were male (n = 13). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multilevel mediation analysis. Results. The results support the indirect effect of teacher-autonomous motivation on the aca-demic satisfaction of Chilean university students. In this regard, the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and the perception of autonomy support constitutes a fundamental psycho-logical mechanism to boost the effect of teacher autonomous motivation. Discussion and Conclusion. The mediating role of teacher self-efficacy and perceived auton-omy support by students in the relationship between teacher autonomous motivation and aca-demic satisfaction is discussed. It is concluded that teacher-level variables mainly explain the variation in academic satisfaction of university students.