Amaral ACS, Stice E, Ferreira MEC. A controlled trial of a dissonance-based eating disorders prevention program with Brazilian girls.
ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019;
32:13. [PMID:
32026167 PMCID:
PMC6967323 DOI:
10.1186/s41155-019-0126-3]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2018] [Accepted: 05/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Given that most young women with eating disorders do not receive treatment, implementing effective prevention programs is a public health priority. The Body Project is a group-based eating disorder prevention program with evidence of both efficacy and effectiveness. This trial evaluated the efficacy of this prevention program with Brazilian girls, as no published study has tested whether this intervention is culturally sensitive and efficacious with Latin-American adolescents.
METHODS
Female students were allocated to a dissonance-based intervention (n = 40) or assessment-only (n = 22) condition. The intervention was a dissonance-based program, consisted of four group sessions aimed to reduce thin-ideal internalization. The sessions included verbal, written, and behavioral exercises. The intervention group was evaluated at pretest and posttest; assessment-only controls completed measures at parallel times.
RESULTS
Compared to assessment-only controls, intervention participants showed a significantly greater reduction in body dissatisfaction, sociocultural influence of the media, depressive symptoms, negative affect, as well as significantly greater increases in body appreciation. There were no significant effects for disordered eating attitudes and eating disorder symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that this dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program was culturally sensitive, or at least culturally adaptive, and efficacious with Brazilian female adolescents. Indeed, the average effect size was slightly larger than has been observed in the large efficacy trial of this prevention program and in recent meta-analytic reviews.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
RBR-7prdf2 . Registered 13 August 2018 (retrospectively registered).
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