General and program-specific moderators of two eating disorder prevention programs.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate general and program-specific factors hypothesized to moderate the effects of two eating disorder prevention programs.


METHODS
High-risk adolescent girls (N = 481; M age = 17) were randomized to a dissonance-based thin-ideal internalization reduction program, a healthy weight management program, an expressive-writing control condition, or an assessment-only control condition. Participants completed diagnostic interviews and surveys at pretest, post-test, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up.


RESULTS
Dissonance program effects on bulimic symptoms were stronger for participants with initial elevations in body image distress, bulimic symptoms, and thin-ideal internalization. Healthy weight program effects on bulimic symptoms were stronger for adolescents with initial elevations in body image distress, bulimic symptoms, readiness to change, body mass, and emotional eating.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall, intervention effects tended to be amplified for high-risk versus low-risk adolescents. However, certain moderator effects appeared to be specific to the two different prevention programs.
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA. estice@ori.org
Eric
E
Stice
Nathan
N
Marti
Heather
H
Shaw
Kelly
K
O'Neil
D000293:Adolescent; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D001828:Body Image; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008370:Manuals as Topic; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012381:Role Playing; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013781:Texas; D014956:Writing