College environment and basic psychological needs: Predicting academic major satisfaction.

The authors aimed to extend the literature in self-determination theory (SDT) to understand the relations between college environmental variables (faculty and peer support) and academic major satisfaction. The study was disseminated via an online platform to 320 students attending a large midwestern university. Based on SDT, it was hypothesized that student perceptions of their volitional autonomy, competence, and relatedness in their academic major would fully mediate the relations between perceived faculty and peer supports and major satisfaction.