Basic Psychological Needs and Agency and Communion During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Gender Differentials and the Role of Well-Being in Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Despite the conceptual proximity between the basic needs and agency and communion and their similar function for psychological functioning, studies investigating their interplay are scarce. This study aims to investigate their joint role in hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Self-reports were collected from 13,313 adolescents (Sample 1) and 1,707 young adults (Sample 2) from Austria. The results show the importance of both agency and communion for the fulfillment of different basic needs and their role in well-being, with a universal interaction effect between communion and perceived competence on intrinsic motivation (eudaimonic aspect) in both gender groups in adolescence, as well as on positive emotions (hedonic aspect) among young women. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.