Eating Disorder Prevention Program Research Articles

Modification of eating attitudes and behavior in adolescent girls: A controlled study.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based eating disorder prevention program designed to reduce dietary restraint and concern about shape and weight among adolescent girls. A total of 474 girls aged 13-14 years received the program as part of their normal school curriculum. An assessment-only control group included 386 pupils. Measures of eating disorder features, self-esteem, and knowledge were administered before and after the intervention and at 6-month follow-up. Immediately following the intervention, there was a small reduction in dietary restraint and attitudes to shape and weight in the index group, whereas there was no change in the control group. This reduction was not maintained at 6-month follow-up although the dietary restraint scores of the index group remained lower than those of the control group. This prevention program achieved change in eating attitudes and behavior, although the change was modest in size and not sustained. Focusing on a high-risk subgroup of dieters might be a more fruitful primary prevention strategy.

Eating Disorders

More than 2 million female Americans have a clinically relevant eating disorder. Although the prevalence and seriousness of this problem has gained increasing attention in recent years, relatively little is known about eating disorder prevention. This article addresses a number of issues related to prevention efforts applied to eating disorders. An overview of putative risk factors that have been identified is presented. In particular, the article emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychological and physical developmental processes during adolescence and the sociocultural context in which eating disorders develop. A summary of empirical investigations of the efficacy of eating disorder prevention programs follows, including an illustration of one of the more promising strategies that has been reported to date. The role of counseling psychologists in further refining eating disorder prevention efforts is discussed.

An empirically supported eating disorder prevention program

An empirically supported eating disorder prevention program

An empirically supported eating disorder prevention program

An empirically supported eating disorder prevention program

An empirically supported eating disorder prevention program

A six-session eating disorder prevention program was completed with three samples: middle school, high school, and college females. The program was intended to promote resiliency factors while mitigating risk factors that had been identified earlier by hierarchical multiple regression analyses and subsequent path analyses from a large epidemiological sample (Phelps, Johnston, & Augustyniak, 1999). Utilizing this etiological model, the program was successful in: (a) facilitating an acknowledgement of the ubiquitous pressures for attainment of the model skeletal look; (b) changing attitudes about standards of beauty; (c) altering the participants' current and future intentional use of pharmaceutical aids or disordered eating behaviors (e.g., fasting, strenuous dieting, purging, excessive exercise) as methods of weight control; (d) building physical self-esteem and personal competence; and (e) reducing body dissatisfaction. To facilitate replication, the article includes a description of the objectives and activities for each of the six sessions. It is recommended that future research efforts focus on testing the long-term efficacy of this program. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Relation of peer and media influences to the development of purging behaviors among preadolescent and adolescent girls.

To assess prospectively the relation of peer and media influences on the risk of development of purging behaviors. Prospective cohort study. One year follow-up of 6982 girls aged 9 to 14 years in 1996 who completed questionnaires in 1996 and 1997 and reported in 1996 that they did not use vomiting or laxatives to control weight. Self-report of using vomiting or laxatives at least monthly to control weight. During 1 year of follow-up, 74 girls began using vomiting or laxatives at least monthly to control weight. Tanner stage of pubic hair development was predictive of beginning to purge (odds ratio [OR] = 1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-2.4). Independent of age and Tanner stage of pubic hair development, importance of thinness to peers (OR = 2.3; 95% CI, 1.8-3.0) and trying to look like females on television, in movies, or in magazines (OR= 1.9; 95% CI, 1.6-2.3) were predictive of beginning to purge at least monthly. Regardless of the covariates included in the logistic regression model, the risk of beginning to purge increased approximately 30% to 40% per 1-category increase in frequency of trying to look like females on television, in movies, or in magazines. Both peers and popular culture, independent of each other, exert influence on girls' weight control beliefs and behaviors. Therefore, to make eating disorder prevention programs more effective, efforts should be made to persuade the television, movie, and magazine industries to employ more models and actresses whose weight could be described as healthy, not underweight.

Eating disorder prevention programs: what we don't know can hurt us

Eating disorder prevention programs: what we don't know can hurt us

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

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.

A pilot peer-leader eating disorders prevention program for sororities

This study assesses a peer-leader intervention for the prevention of eating disorders in sororities. Within a two-group quasi-experimental design, peer leaders were selected from the experimental sororities and trained to advocate no dieting, healthy eating, and exercise and how to make psychotherapy referrals. Three psychotherapy referrals were made. No significant differences were found between experimental and control participants. However, sorority members who participated more fully in the intervention reported better physical condition and trends for less dieting and more exercise self-efficacy.

Primary prevention of eating disorders: might it do more harm than good?

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate a new school-based eating disorder prevention program designed to reduce dietary restraint. Forty-six school-girls, aged 13-14 years, took part. The intervention consisted of eight weekly sessions of 45 min duration. A battery of self-report questionnaires was administered before and after the intervention and 6 months later. Unlike previous prevention studies, there was not only an increase in knowledge at postintervention but there was also a decrease in target behavior and attitudes. However, these effects were short-lived since they had disappeared 6 months later: indeed, at 6-month follow-up there was an increase in dietary restraint compared with baseline. These findings suggest that the intervention had been counterproductive since it led to an increase in dietary restraint. They imply that school-based prevention programs may do more harm than good.

Primary prevention of eating disorders: Might it do more harm than good?

Objective The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate a new school-based eating disorder prevention program designed to reduce dietary restraint. Method: Forty-six schoolgirls, aged 13–14 years, took part. The intervention consisted of eight weekly sessions of 45 min duration. A battery of self-report questionnaires was administered before and after the intervention and 6 months later. Results: Unlike previous prevention studies, there was not only an increase in knowledge at postintervention but there was also a decrease in target behavior and attitudes. However, these effects were short-lived since they had disappeared 6 months later: indeed, at 6-month follow-up there was an increase in dietary restraint compared with baseline. Discussion: These findings suggest that the intervention had been counterproductive since it led to an increase in dietary restraint. They imply that school-based prevention programs may do more harm than good. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Disord 22: 167–172, 1997.

Are two interventions worse than none? Joint primary and secondary prevention of eating disorders in college females.

Prevention programs for eating disorders attempt to simultaneously prevent new cases from arising (primary prevention) and encourage students who already have symptoms to seek early treatment (secondary prevention), even though ideal strategies for these 2 types of prevention may be incompatible with each other. In the present study, an eating disorder prevention program was evaluated in a simple of female college freshmen. In the intervention, classmates who had recovered from eating disorders described their experiences and provided information about eating disorders. At follow-up, intervention participants had slightly more symptoms of eating disorders than did controls. The program may have been ineffective in preventing eating disorders because by reducing the stigma of these disorders (to encourage students with problems to seek help), the program may have inadvertently normalized them.

“Prevention Series”Girls in the 90's

Abstract Girls in the 90's is an eating disorder prevention program for preadolescent girls which puts into effect contemporary theories of female development. Set 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 program can be adapted to different situations and age groups and can be integrated into existing resources and practice.