Adolescents' self-determined motivation to learn about safe sex online: An explorative experimental study testing the effect of an autonomy-supportive tone of voice and identification

Having intrinsic or self-determined motivation in contrast to controlled motivation has proved to result in better learning and health behavior adoption and maintenance. Intrinsic or self-determined motivation can be enhanced by satisfying the need for autonomy. Therefore, this study investigated if adolescents’ (1) intrinsic motivation to learn about safe sex and (2) self-determined motivation to perform safe sex would be higher when an online message about safe sex is presented in autonomy-supportive language (implying choice) compared to controlling language (pressuring and commanding tone). Furthermore, this study also investigated if adolescents’ (1) intrinsic motivation to learn about safe sex and (2) self-determined motivation to perform safe sex changes depending on whether the online message is written by someone that is similar to them, in comparison to when this message is written by someone that is not similar to them. To this end, a 2 (autonomy-supportive language vs. controlling language) by 2 (identification vs. no identification) experimental study (N = 204) was conducted using a website page about safe sex from the Dutch sexual health website sense.info. Even though we found some indications of the expected effects, a two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed no significant difference for either autonomy-supportive language, identification, or an interaction of both strategies. However, we found some preliminary evidence that this could be due to a ceiling effect. We therefore recommend further exploring these strategies, taking into account some lessons learned.