Girls in the 90s: A gender-based model for eating disorder prevention

Abstract

Girls in the 90s is an eating disorder prevention program for pre-adolescent/adolescent girls which operationalizes contemporary theories of female development. Set right at the beginning of the continuum of food and weight preoccupation, the program teaches girls to recognize when they feel fat and encourages them to tell the stories that lie underneath. The program validates girls' experiences and feelings, reframes them in terms of female development and provides girls with an understanding of the societal pressures that they face. The flexibility of the program enables it to be used by women with different professional orientations, with different age groups and to address different health and social risks that girls face. The skills can be adapted for use in group and individual counselling situations and can be integrated into existing resources and practice.