title: Happy Being Me in the UK: a controlled evaluation of a school-based body image intervention with pre-adolescent children.
abstract: This study evaluated an adapted version of 'Happy Being Me', a school-based body image intervention, with girls and boys aged 10-11 years. Forty-three children participated in a three-week intervention, and 45 children formed a control group. Both groups completed measures of body satisfaction, risk factors for negative body image, eating behaviors, self-esteem, and intervention topic knowledge, at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up. For girls, participation in the intervention resulted in significant improvements in body satisfaction, appearance-related conversations, appearance comparisons, eating behaviors and intervention topic knowledge at post-intervention, although only the change in body satisfaction was maintained. There was also a significant decrease in internalization of cultural appearance ideals from baseline to follow-up. For boys, participation in the intervention resulted in significant improvements in internalization and appearance comparisons at post-intervention; however, neither of these changes were sustained at follow-up. There were no improvements in the control group over time.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of the West of England, Glenside Campus, Bristol BS16 1DD, United Kingdom. emma.bird@uwe.ac.uk
authors.forename: Emma L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Bird
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Halliwell
authors.forename: Phillippa C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Diedrichs
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Harcourt
mesh_terms: D001828:Body Image; D002648:Child; D003479:Curriculum; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D006113:United Kingdom