Abstract
Digital behavior change tools increasingly use system-driven tailoring to guide users toward healthier choices. While well-intentioned, such approaches may undermine autonomous behavior change by removing users from decision-making processes and limiting opportunities to develop self-knowledge: a practical understanding of what works for oneself that can help regulate current and future behaviors. This is particularly consequential for adolescents, who are developing personal autonomy at a time when the health behaviors they establish can have long-term consequences. We propose that self-tailoring can enhance autonomy by actively involving users in constructing and adapting approaches to their own contexts. Through two studies, we investigated how adolescents can be supported in constructing their own behavior change strategies. Study 1 shows that adolescents are capable of self-tailoring and that doing so can build self-knowledge through experience. Study 2 shows how a strategy menu at moments of goal (re)setting can scaffold self-knowledge to inform behavioral choices.
Keywords
self-tailoring, self-knowledge, adolescent health, health behavior change
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1212
Citation
Houtman, T.A., Sleeswijk Visser, F., Şekerli, E., and Visch, V. (2026) Designing for Self-Tailoring in Adolescent Health Behavior Change, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1212
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Designing for Self-Tailoring in Adolescent Health Behavior Change
Digital behavior change tools increasingly use system-driven tailoring to guide users toward healthier choices. While well-intentioned, such approaches may undermine autonomous behavior change by removing users from decision-making processes and limiting opportunities to develop self-knowledge: a practical understanding of what works for oneself that can help regulate current and future behaviors. This is particularly consequential for adolescents, who are developing personal autonomy at a time when the health behaviors they establish can have long-term consequences. We propose that self-tailoring can enhance autonomy by actively involving users in constructing and adapting approaches to their own contexts. Through two studies, we investigated how adolescents can be supported in constructing their own behavior change strategies. Study 1 shows that adolescents are capable of self-tailoring and that doing so can build self-knowledge through experience. Study 2 shows how a strategy menu at moments of goal (re)setting can scaffold self-knowledge to inform behavioral choices.