This study examined the antecedents of utilising need-supportive and need-thwarting styles among Japanese secondary school physical education teachers based on the Self-Determination Theory. Although the literature affirms the importance of these teaching styles for legitimate learning outcomes, there are still unknown factors why physical education teachers adopt these teaching styles. This study aimed to shed light on the influence of teachers’ basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration at work on their teaching styles with a sample of Japanese physical education teachers. This study adopted a pragmatic mixed methods approach. The quantitative portion comprised a web-based questionnaire that utilised the Japanese versions of the Situations-in-School-PE and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scales. Valid responses were obtained from 302 teachers (231 men and 71 women). Furthermore, qualitative interview data were collected from six teachers (four men and two women) selected from the quantitative survey. The interview data were coded deductively to generate themes of need satisfaction and frustration. We hypothesised that need-supportive teachers would exhibit higher satisfaction, whereas need-thwarting teachers would exhibit frustration. A regression analysis demonstrated that relatedness satisfaction and autonomy frustration predicted need-supportive styles, and there was a statistically significant and positive correlation between need-thwarting styles and relatedness frustration. Furthermore, the results suggested that the quality of interpersonal relationships with colleagues significantly affected teaching styles. Moreover, contrary to our hypothesis, the results demonstrated that need-supportive teachers were likely to feel frustrated with their autonomy in the workplace. This could be due to the hierarchical relationships at work that are common in the Japanese context.
