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Need-satisfying experiences corresponding to students' psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence lead to increased academic engagement and well-being. A lack of education-specific basic needs instruments validated in Swedish may inhibit basic needs research in Swedish-speaking student populations. Thus, the present study aimed to adapt the Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (NSFS) to the context of education in Sweden and validate this new Swedish NSFS in a sample of Swedish university students (n = 417, 59.7% women, mean age = 23.3 (SD = 4.3) years). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to investigate the dimensionality of NSFS ratings, followed by structural equation modelling of nomological networks of basic needs, academic engagement, life satisfaction, academic burnout, and perceived stress. The NSFS ratings were best described by a three-factor model with methods correction for reversed item bias. Results showed that each need uniquely contributed to perceived stress and academic burnout. Relatedness and competence, but not autonomy, were significant predictors of life satisfaction and academic engagement. The main study contribution was providing a Swedish NSFS to assess autonomy, relatedness, and competence in higher education. The results support the use of the Swedish NSFS as a three-dimensional measure of basic needs in Swedish-speaking student populations.

The present study evaluated the dimensionality, measurement invariance, and nomological network of the Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (NSFS) in a sample of Swedish workers. Using confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory structural equation modeling, and bifactor modeling, 30 different measurement models were evaluated cross-sectionally (n = 2123) and longitudinally (n = 1506). Measurement invariance was tested across gender and time. The nomological network of the NSFS was examined through its relations with life satisfaction and cognitive weariness. The findings supported a first-order six-factor ESEM model and measurement invariance of the Swedish version of the NSFS. Need satisfaction was positively related to life satisfaction and unrelated to cognitive weariness. Need frustration was negatively related to life satisfaction and positively related to cognitive weariness. The present study supported a six-factor structure of the Swedish NSFS, which appears suitable for assessing changes over time and gender differences in ratings.

The overall aims of this thesis were 1) to investigate how to measure and model basic psychological needs in higher education and work contexts, specifically in Swedish-speaking populations, and 2) to analyze the psychometric properties of basic psychological needs self-report instruments.

The thesis consists of four studies and a summary. The main concepts studied were the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as conceptualized in the Self- Determination Theory (SDT).

The first study identified subgroups of early career psychologists characterized by their ratings on self- efficacy, psychological flexibility, and basic psychological need satisfaction. The results show that the groups differed in self-rated health, well-being, and intention to leave their profession. Higher basic psychological need satisfaction, self-efficacy, and psychological flexibility were associated with better self-rated health and well-being.

The second study was an extensive psychometric evaluation of the need satisfaction and frustration scale (NSFS) in a large sample of Swedish workers. The analyses supported measurement invariance longitudinally and for gender, as well as the nomological validity of the scale. The dimensionality analyses supported a six-dimensional structure of the NSFS that takes small cross-loadings into account in an exploratory structural equation modeling representation. However, poor discrimination between need satisfaction and need frustration was present for some items.

The third study translated a revised Swedish version of the NSFS, adapted to the educational domain, and validated it in a sample of Swedish university students. Dimensionality analyses supported using the NSFS as a three-dimensional measure of students' need for autonomy, need for competence, and need for relatedness. In support of nomological validity, each need uniquely contributed to predicting perceived stress and academic burnout. However, unexpectedly, autonomy did not provide incremental value beyond competence and relatedness in predicting life satisfaction and academic engagement.

The fourth study translated and adapted the basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration scale (BPNSFS) to Swedish and the educational domain (BPNSFS-ED). This study also investigated the coherence between the BPNSFS-ED and the NSFS. Factor analyses showed support for using the scale as a six- dimensional measure of students' needs satisfaction and need frustration. The coherence between the BPNSFS-ED and the NSFS was moderate, and the BPNSFS-ED appears to be a more SDT coherent measure of students’ basic psychological needs.

The main contribution of this thesis was providing researchers with a validated self-report instrument to assess basic psychological needs in Swedish education. The results also highlight challenges with measuring and modeling basic psychological needs and question whether items from well-used basic needs self-rating scales properly tap into the concept of need frustration. Finally, the results show that the need for autonomy seems to differ between basic psychological needs instruments which calls for mindfulness when choosing an instrument to measure basic psychological needs, and when comparing results across studies. Based on the results of this thesis, the BPNSFS-ED self-report instrument appears to be a good choice for researchers interested in assessing basic psychological needs in Swedish education.

The transition from university to working life appears a critical period impacting human service workers' long-term health. More research is needed on how psychological factors affect the risk. We aimed to investigate how subgroups, based on self-efficacy, psychological flexibility, and basic psychological needs satisfaction ratings, differed on self-rated health, wellbeing, and intention to leave. A postal survey was sent to 1,077 recently graduated psychologists in Sweden (≤3 years from graduation), response rate 57.5%, and final sample 532 (75% women and 23% men). A hierarchical cluster analysis resulted in a satisfactory eight-cluster solution. We identified two at-risk subgroups, displaying the lowest scores on health and wellbeing, and one potential low-risk subgroup with the highest ratings on said variables. The "Low risk?" group rated high on all three psychological constructs, a positive transition to working life, a work environment where resources balanced relatively high emotional demands, good health, and wellbeing. Almost the complete opposite ratings characterized the potential risk groups. "Quitting?" scored significantly higher than "Getting sick?" on self-efficacy and psychological flexibility as well as actively seeking new employment and reporting daily thoughts on leaving the profession. We suggest that a combination of low self-efficacy and psychological flexibility could increase the risk of individuals staying despite suboptimal working conditions. With combined higher self-efficacy and psychological flexibility, individuals in similar circumstances appear more inclined to quit. We conclude that the ways recently graduated psychologists rate their self-efficacy, psychological flexibility, and basic needs satisfaction appear to be reflected in their self-rated health and wellbeing.

Self-rating scales assessing multidimensional constructs are extensively used in psychological and education research. The psychometric multidimensionality of self-rating scale data is typically a mix of construct-relevant and construct-irrelevant multidimensionality. The present investigation focus on the use of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling (ESEM) and Bi-factor frameworks to disentangle construct-relevant and construct-irrelevant psychometric multidimensionality. A practical example is given using the Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (NSFS). The NSFS is an 18-item self-rating scale assessing the human basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness and competence, proposed within the Self-Determination Theory framework. The main focus of the study was to disentangle construct-relevant and construct-irrelevant psychometric multidimensionality of NSFS ratings by taking into account 1) the possibility of hierarchically organized constructs, 2) items’ imperfect nature as indicators of latent constructs potentially causing construct-relevant associations between items and non-target conceptually related constructs, and, 3) method effects (specifically reversed item bias) potentially causing construct irrelevant psychometric multidimensionality. Implications for applied research are discussed.

BACKGROUND: Depression is associated with an increased risk of dementia. However, short follow-up times and lack of adjustment for familial factors in previous studies could influence this association. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the association between depression and subsequent dementia, while controlling for familial factors and with a follow-up of over 35 years.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: Two cohorts were formed from all individuals aged 50 years or older living in Sweden as of 31 December 2005 (n = 3,341,010). The Swedish National Patient Register was searched from 1964 through 2016 to identify diagnosis of depression and dementia. In the first cohort, individuals diagnosed with depression (n = 119,386) were matched 1:1 with controls without depression diagnosis. The second cohort was a sibling cohort (n = 50,644) consisting of same-sex full sibling pairs with discordant depression status. In the population matched cohort study, a total of 9,802 individuals were diagnosed with dementia during a mean follow-up time of 10.41 (range 0-35) years (5.5% of those diagnosed with depression and 2.6% of those without depression diagnosis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.47, 95% CI 2.35-2.58; p < 0.001), with a stronger association for vascular dementia (aOR 2.68, 95% CI 2.44-2.95; p < 0.001) than for Alzheimer disease (aOR 1.79, 95% CI 1.68-1.92; p < 0.001). The association with dementia diagnosis was strongest in the first 6 months after depression diagnosis (aOR 15.20, 95% CI 11.85-19.50; p < 0.001), then decreased rapidly but persisted over follow-up of more than 20 years (aOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.27-1.98; p < 0.001). Also in the sibling cohort, the association was strongest in the first 6 months (aOR 20.85, 95% CI 9.63-45.12; p < 0.001), then decreased rapidly but persisted over follow-up of more than 20 years (aOR 2.33, 95% CI 1.32-4.11; p < 0.001). The adjusted models included sex, age at baseline, citizenship, civil status, household income, and diagnoses at baseline. The main limitation of the study methodology is the use of observational data; hence, the associations found are not proof of causal effects.

CONCLUSIONS: Depression is associated with increased odds of dementia, even more than 20 years after diagnosis of depression, and the association remains after adjustment for familial factors. Further research is needed to investigate whether successful prevention and treatment of depression decrease the risk of dementia.

Background: A growing body of research suggests internal motivation as constructive in optimizing the learning in educational contexts. Self-Determination theory postulates three basic needs whose fulfillment facilitates internal motivation and well-being; the needs of competence (i.e. feeling capable), autonomy (i.e. perceiving possibilities to make choices) and relatedness (i.e. feeling connected to others). Further exploring students’ experience of needs satisfaction in the educational context may gain insights relevant to an array of outcomes, such as student performance, wellbeing, motivation, attitudes and dropouts. However, lack of validated measures of students needs satisfaction in higher education may inhibit such research, or maintain the dependence on the use of combined scales with lack of confirmed validity and coherence with SDT theory.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate a Swedish basic psychological needs scale for students’ in higher education.

Methods: An available measure of needs satisfaction will be used to adapt and evaluate a Swedish basic psychological needs satisfaction scale. Validation will be conducted with a sample of 200 students in higher education in Sweden, enrolled in a program at Umeå university with a minimum of 1 years of completed studies. The adapted questionnaire items will be analyses with a focus group of 10 students. Statistical analysis includes factor structure, internal consistency and concurrent validity with measures of students’ motivation and well-being.

Results & discussion: Data collection and analysis will be conducted in the fall of 2019

BACKGROUND: The identification of potential high-risk groups for depression is of importance. The purpose of the present study was to identify high-risk profiles for depressive symptoms in older individuals, with a focus on functional performance.

METHODS: The population-based Healthy Ageing Initiative included 2,084 community-dwelling individuals (49% women) aged 70. Explorative cluster analysis was used to group participants according to functional performance level, using measures of basic mobility skills, gait variability, and grip strength. Intercluster differences in depressive symptoms (measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS]-15), physical activity (PA; measured objectively with the ActiGraph GT3X+), and a rich set of covariates were examined.

RESULTS: The cluster analysis yielded a seven-cluster solution. One potential high-risk cluster was identified, with overrepresentation of individuals with GDS scores >5 (15.1 vs. 2.7% expected; relative risk = 6.99, P < .001); the prevalence of depressive symptoms was significantly lower in the other clusters (all P < .01). The potential high-risk cluster had significant overrepresentations of obese individuals (39.7 vs. 17.4% expected) and those with type 2 diabetes (24.7 vs. 8.5% expected), and underrepresentation of individuals who fulfilled the World Health Organization's PA recommendations (15.6 vs. 59.1% expected; all P < .01), as well as low levels of functional performance.

CONCLUSIONS: The present study provided a potential high-risk profile for depressive symptoms among elderly community-dwelling individuals, which included low levels functional performance combined with low levels of PA. Including PA in medical screening of the elderly may aid in identification of potential high-risk individuals for depressive symptoms.