Psychological Needs and Motivational Outcomes in a High School Orchestra Program

Motivation has formed a core strand of research in music education, reflecting its importance in educational psychology and other skill-based performance domains. Understanding motivation is crucial for explaining students’ achievement, performance, well-being, and intentions to continue participation in (or drop out of) music learning throughout school and into adulthood. In the present study, we addressed the need to better understand motivation in music education by examining the impact of psychological needs satisfaction and frustration in a high school orchestra program. Psychological needs—a core component of self-determination theory—have considerable explanatory power in other life domains and educational settings and are the focus of recent attention in music education. Participants ( N = 704) were surveyed in orchestra programs in three schools in the midwestern United States. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the effects of psychological needs satisfaction and frustration. The model explained substantial variance on three key outcomes: practice time (22%), intentions to continue participating in the orchestra program (45%), and global-self esteem (34%). The results point to psychological needs satisfaction and frustration as key elements of music education in which teachers might intervene to improve these outcomes as well as students’ learning, engagement, and psychological well-being more broadly.