Basic psychological need satisfaction and creativity among university students: the mediating role of intrinsic motivation.

Creativity has received considerable attention as a core competency in higher education, yet the psychological processes associated with everyday creative ideation remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on self-determination theory and the componential theory of creativity, this study examined the relationships among autonomy, competence, relatedness, intrinsic motivation, and creativity, operationalized as self-reported everyday creative ideation, in a sample of 1,067 Chinese undergraduate students. Structural equation modeling was employed, with age and gender included as control variables in the structural model. The results showed that autonomy, competence, and relatedness were all significantly and positively associated with intrinsic motivation (β = 0.299, p < 0.001; β = 0.218, p < 0.001; β = 0.370, p < 0.001, respectively), and intrinsic motivation was significantly and positively associated with everyday creative ideation (β = 0.252, p < 0.001). Autonomy, competence, and relatedness were also significantly and positively associated with everyday creative ideation (β = 0.252, p < 0.001; β = 0.209, p < 0.001; β = 0.198, p = 0.002, respectively). Further analyses revealed significant indirect relationships between autonomy, competence, and relatedness and everyday creative ideation through intrinsic motivation (β = 0.075, p = 0.002; β = 0.055, p = 0.004; β = 0.093, p = 0.002, respectively). Simulation-based sensitivity analyses further indicated that these indirect relationships remained relatively robust under moderate levels of potential unmeasured confounding. These findings provide further theoretical insight into the associations among basic psychological need satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and creativity in higher education, while the practical implications are primarily relevant to supporting students' creative ideation.