Autonomous Motivation Trajectory Following Adoption of a Team-Based Gamification App Among Adults With Diabetes: 1-Year Formative Longitudinal Study

Autonomous motivation, grounded in self-determination theory, is important for sustaining diabetes self-care behaviors. Although mobile health interventions, gamification, and peer support are increasingly used to enhance motivation in diabetes care, evidence on how motivation evolves over time remains limited. Specifically, it is unclear whether motivational change follows a linear pattern or a nonlinear trajectory, such as an initial increase followed by a subsequent decline. Clarifying these temporal patterns is critical for informing the design of adaptive diabetes self-care interventions.