Dissonance and healthy weight eating disorder prevention programs: a randomized efficacy trial.
In this trial, adolescent girls with body dissatisfaction (N = 481, M age = 17 years) were randomized to an eating disorder prevention program involving dissonance-inducing activities that reduce thin-ideal internalization, a prevention program promoting healthy weight management, an expressive writing control condition, or an assessment-only control condition. Dissonance participants showed significantly greater reductions in eating disorder risk factors and bulimic symptoms than healthy weight, expressive writing, and assessment-only participants, and healthy weight participants showed significantly greater reductions in risk factors and symptoms than expressive writing and assessment-only participants from pretest to posttest. Although these effects faded over 6-month and 12-month follow-ups, dissonance and healthy weight participants showed significantly lower binge eating and obesity onset and reduced service utilization through 12-month follow-up, suggesting that both interventions have public health potential.
Stice
Eric
E
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. estice@ori.org
Shaw
Heather
H
Burton
Emily
E
Wade
Emily
E
D000293:Adolescent; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D012919:Social Behavior; D016896:Treatment Outcome