What is it about?
We pulled together 122 studies from schools, sport, parenting, health care and more to see what makes people (teachers, parents, coaches, etc.) act in supportive ways towards others (called "need supportive style") versus controlling ways (called "need thwarting style"). We catalogued 59 specific factors, grouped into 13 broader factors within three themes: (1) the social context around the motivator, (2) the motivator’s own characteristics, and (3) the motivator’s perceptions of the person they’re supporting. All these factors are called in our paper as "antecedents" of need supportive or need thwarting styles .
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Why is it important?
To increase need support towards motivatees, invest in the motivator’s own needs and autonomous motivation (e.g., workload/time supports, collegial support, autonomy at work), and build relationship quality and emotion skills. To reduce need thwarting towards motivatees, target amotivation/need frustration in the motivator, recalibrate negative perceptions about the motivatee (bias-aware training, better feedback loops), and lighten external/internal pressures where possible.
Perspectives
Identifying candidate antecedents of need support or need thwarting towards others can inform intervention programs (particularly for those antecedents that are more amenable to change) in schools, workplaces, households, etc., to better help teachers, work supervisors, parents, and others to fully embrace need supportive styles.
Nikos Ntoumanis
Syddansk Universitet
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Candidate antecedents of need supportive and need thwarting interpersonal styles: A systematic review and meta-analysis., Motivation Science, September 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/mot0000414.
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