Life Skills Development and Well-Being in Physical Education: The Role of the Teaching Climate

Objectives: Physical education is acknowledged as a setting to promote young peoples’ development and well-being, provided a positive teaching climate exists. The present study explored the relationships between teachers’ autonomy support, students’ life skills development within physical education and psychological well-being. Design: This descriptive study used a cross-sectional research design. Participants were recruited from six schools across the United Kingdom to ensure a diverse sample of physical education students. Method: School physical education students (N = 294) completed measures of teacher autonomy support, life skills development within physical education (teamwork, goal setting, time management, emotional skills, communication, social skills, leadership, and problem solving) and psychological well-being (self-esteem, positive affect, and satisfaction with life). Results: Bivariate correlations were consistent with self-determination theory. Autonomy support was related to both life skills development and psychological well-being. Mediational analysis revealed that teamwork fully mediated the relationship between teachers’ autonomy support and self-esteem, teamwork and leadership partially mediated the relationships between teachers’ autonomy support and positive affect, and time management fully mediated the relationship between teachers’ autonomy support and satisfaction with life. The associations between teachers’ autonomy support and all three psychological well-being indicators were also mediated by total life skills. Conclusions: Results suggest that the relationship between teachers’ autonomy support and students' psychological well-being can occur through the promotion of teamwork, leadership, time management, and total life skills. Therefore, teachers should endeavour to create an autonomy supportive climate that promotes young peoples’ life skills and fosters their psychological well-being.