Need satisfaction and frustration profiles as a lens to understand emotions in student teachers in the school placement

Student teachers experience different emotions during their school placement that are essential for their professional development. Based on self-determination theory, this study investigates how the satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—are associated with these emotions. Using a person-centred approach, 203 Austrian secondary student teachers filled in a questionnaire before and after their placement. Latent profile analysis identified five distinct need profiles: (1) highly satisfied, (2) competence satisfied, (3) ambivalent, (4) competence & relatedness satisfied, and (5) relatedness satisfied. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that profile affiliation was linked to emotions. The highly satisfied group showed the highest enjoyment, while the relatedness satisfied group reported more anger and anxiety and less enjoyment. These results demonstrate that specific configurations of need satisfaction and frustration are meaningfully associated with emotions. These findings emphasise the importance of cultivating need satisfaction in the placement context for the support of positive emotions. • Five different need satisfaction and need frustration profiles of student teachers in the placement could be identified. • Student teachers' emotions discriminate between profile membership. • A large proportion of student teachers experience high need satisfaction and low need frustration in the placement. • “Risk profiles” were also identified reflecting high need frustration and low need satisfaction.