A pilot evaluation of a social media literacy intervention to reduce risk factors for eating disorders

McLean, Siân A.; Wertheim, Eleanor H.; Masters, Jennifer; Paxton, Susan J.

doi:10.1002/eat.22708

Cited by 132 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Importantly, the findings highlight how young adolescents actively interpret #fitspiration in the context of their existing knowledge of fitness and physical activity, supporting active models of media engagement (e.g., uses and gratification model, Ruggiero, 2000). Our findings demonstrate the ability of young adolescents to critically engage with appearance-focused social media content, supporting recent intervention work in this field (McLean, Wertheim, Masters, & Paxton, 2017). The use of photo-elicitation helped to stimulate dialogue within groups and enabled shared understandings and interpretations to emerge from participants (Bates et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

‘When you think of exercising, you don’t really want to think of puking, tears, and pain’: Young adolescents’ understanding of fitness and #fitspiration

2019

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Adolescents access information about fitness, including content labelled as #fitspiration, through social media. A total of 77 adolescents (mean age = 12.49; standard deviation = 0.55; girls = 27) participated in semi-structured focus groups to explore their perspectives on #fitspiration and fitness more broadly. Through inductive thematic analysis, four themes were developed: (1) fitness enhances physical function and appearance, but these are not always linked; (2) fitness is transformative but requires hard work; (3) fitness should be an intrinsically motivated personal choice; and (4) pain in the pursuit of fitness. Findings highlight young adolescents’ complex understandings of fitness negotiated through their critical interpretation of #fitspiration.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

‘When you think of exercising, you don’t really want to think of puking, tears, and pain’: Young adolescents’ understanding of fitness and #fitspiration

2019

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“…Full‐text screening excluded a further 206 articles, leaving 24 relevant articles to be included in this review. Eighteen were peer‐reviewed primary studies (Bird, Halliwell, Diedrichs, & Harcourt, ; Diedrichs et al, ; Dohnt & Tiggemann, ; Dunstan et al, ; Haines, Neumark‐Sztainer, Perry, Hannan, & Levine, ; Halliwell et al, ; McLean, Wertheim, Masters, & Paxton, ; McVey et al, ; Neumark‐Sztainer et al, ; Ross, Paxton, & Rodgers, ; Sanchez‐Carracedo et al, ; Sharpe et al, ; Steiner‐Adair et al, ; Warschburger & Zitzmann, ; Wilksch, ; Wilksch et al, ; Wilksch & Wade, , ), while six were unpublished dissertations (Batten, ; Fiissel, ; Haines, ; Kusel, ; Sharpe, ; Shepard, ). As both unpublished dissertations and published primary studies were obtained for two trials, the 24 included articles presented 22 trials (Haines et al, ; Sharpe et al, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A meta‐analysis of the seven trials assessing body esteem at postintervention showed a statistically significant, but very small, effect, favoring the intervention group with significant moderate statistical heterogeneity ( I 2 = 59%, p = .02; Figure ). A sensitivity analysis identified two outliers (Diedrichs et al, ; McLean et al, ) because the scale that they used lacked a subscale of the body esteem scale (Mendelson, Mendelson & White, ), which was included by the other five studies. Excluding the trials lowered the heterogeneity to low levels ( I 2 = 0%, p = .46) and showed a statistically significant, but small, effect (SMD = .25, 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.37, Z = 4.13, p < .0001) among 1,122 participants (Figure ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research Review: Effectiveness of universal eating disorder prevention interventions in improving body image among children: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Chua

Tam

Shorey

2019

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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Background: Increasingly, children are at risk of developing eating disorders. A systematic review and a metaanalysis were conducted to examine the effectiveness of universal eating disorder prevention interventions in improving body image, internalization of appearance ideals, and self-esteem among children aged 5-17 years old. Methods: Nine electronic databases were systematically searched from each database's point of inception to March 2019. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool assessed each study's risk of bias, while the GRADE approach judged the overall evidence for each review outcome. A meta-analysis was conducted using the random-effect model to obtain standardized mean differences with 95% confidence intervals under the inverse variance method. Heterogeneity was assessed using I 2 statistic and Cochran's Q chi-squared test. Publication bias was assessed using funnel plots. Results: A total of 24 studies (22 trials) were included in this review. Universal interventions were found to be effective in improving children's body esteem, self-esteem, and internalization of appearance ideals at postintervention and at follow-up timepoints. Subgroup analyses found that girls benefited more from these interventions than boys. Multisessional interventions with an optimal duration of approximately one month were found to be more effective. Conclusions: The findings encourage the incorporation of universal preventive interventions into school curricula to benefit most children. Laypeople such as teachers can deliver these interventions, but content experts should address topics on body dissatisfaction. Due to the low quality of evidence, as accorded by the GRADE approach, current findings should be validated by future research.Children are at risk of developing eating disorders. Available supportive interventions have not been evaluated objectively for their effectiveness. Universal eating disorder prevention interventions improve body esteem, internalization of appearance ideals, and self-esteem.Girls are more susceptible to poor body image and might benefit from more intensive interventions compared to boys.Interventions need to be multisessional with longer durations. Future universal eating disorder prevention interventions need to include gender-specific topics that are delivered to separate genders.

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“…There have been previous suggestions that psycho-educational interventions could focus on raising awareness of the harms of this sort of content and increasing followers' media literacy and critical appraisal skills [18,19]. This study suggests young people believe that being armed with information and critical appraisal skills will protect them against possible negative effects.…”

Section: Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 74%

Young People�s Experiences of Viewing the Fitspiration Social Media Trend: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

Easton¹,

Morton²,

Tappy³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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A pilot evaluation of a social media literacy intervention to reduce risk factors for eating disorders

Cited by 132 publications

References 21 publications

‘When you think of exercising, you don’t really want to think of puking, tears, and pain’: Young adolescents’ understanding of fitness and #fitspiration

‘When you think of exercising, you don’t really want to think of puking, tears, and pain’: Young adolescents’ understanding of fitness and #fitspiration

Research Review: Effectiveness of universal eating disorder prevention interventions in improving body image among children: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Young People�s Experiences of Viewing the Fitspiration Social Media Trend: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

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