Objective: Evaluate a selective prevention program targeting both eating disorder symptoms and unhealthy weight gain in young women. Method: Female college students at high-risk for these outcomes by virtue of body image concerns (N = 398; M age = 18.4 years, SD = 0.6) were randomized to the Healthy Weight group-based 4-hr prevention program,…

Significant advances have occurred regarding the understanding of etiologic processes that give rise to eating disorders and the design and evaluation of efficacious prevention programs and treatment interventions. Herein we offer suggestions regarding potentially fruitful directions for future research in these areas. We suggest it would be…

Objective: A group dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program, in which young women critique the thin ideal, reduces eating disorder risk factors and symptoms, but it can be difficult to identify school clinicians with the time and expertise to deliver the intervention. Thus, we developed a prototype Internet version of this program and…

Objective: Evaluate the effects of a prevention program targeting both eating disorders and obesity at 1- and 2-year follow-ups. Method: Female college students at risk for these outcomes because of body image concerns (N = 398) were randomized to the "Healthy Weight 2" group-based 4-hr prevention program, which promotes lasting healthy…

Objective: Efficacy trials found that a dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program in which female high school and college students with body image concerns critique the thin ideal reduced eating disorder risk factors, eating disorder symptoms, and future eating disorder onset. The present effectiveness trial tested whether this program…

Objective: Test the hypothesis that reductions in thin-ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction mediate the effects of a dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program on reductions in eating disorder symptoms over 1-year follow-up. Method: Data were drawn from a randomized effectiveness trial in which 306 female high school students…

Prospective studies have identified factors that increase risk for eating pathology onset, including perceived pressure for thinness, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and negative affect. Research also suggests that body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint may constitute prodromal stages of the development of…

Efficacy trials indicate that an eating disorder prevention program involving dissonance-inducing activities that decrease thin-ideal internalization reduces risk for current and future eating pathology, yet it is unclear whether this program produces effects under real-world conditions. The present effectiveness trial tested whether this program…

This meta-analysis of eating disorder prevention programs found that intervention effects ranged from an absence of any effects to reductions in current and future eating pathology. Certain effects persisted as long as 2 years and were superior to minimal-intervention control conditions. Larger effects occurred for selected (vs. universal),…

The authors investigated mediators hypothesized to account for the effects of 2 eating disorder prevention programs using data from 355 adolescent girls who were randomized to a dissonance or a healthy weight intervention or an active control condition. The dissonance intervention produced significant reductions in outcomes (body…

Increasingly, researchers in the areas of eating disorders and obesity prevention are recognizing the benefits of collaborative efforts aimed at curbing the spectrum of eating-related disturbances. Research suggests that eating disorders and overweight tend to co-occur, and that individuals cross over from one eating-related disturbance to…

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…