title: Preventing the development of body issues in adolescent girls through intervention with their mothers.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of the Healthy Girls Project, an ecologically based, targeted prevention program aimed at discouraging the development of body-related problems in middle-school girls via an intervention directly and only with their mothers. Participants were 31 seventh- and eighth-grade girls and their mothers. The empirically based intervention comprised a series of 4 weekly workshops that had both interactive psychoeducational components and behavioral components (e.g., homework to do with daughters, modeling activities). The study design was experimental, with mother-daughter dyads randomly assigned to either the intervention group or a wait-list control group. Daughters completed pretest (i.e., pre-workshop) measures, posttest measures, and, 3 months later, follow-up measures. Results indicated that at both posttest and follow-up, girls whose mothers were in the intervention group perceived less pressure from their mothers to be thin. At follow-up, these girls also showed a lower drive for thinness. Results were mixed regarding group differences in body dissatisfaction levels at posttest and at follow-up. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for targeted prevention efforts aimed at girls during their middle-school years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, IN 46556, United States. acorning@nd.edu
authors.forename: Alexandra F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Corning
authors.forename: Dawn M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Gondoli
authors.forename: Michaela M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Bucchianeri
authors.forename: Elizabeth H Blodgett
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Salafia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001828:Body Image; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D004493:Education / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013851:Thinness / Q000523:psychology