A randomised-controlled trial investigating potential underlying mechanisms of a functionality-based approach to improving women’s body image

Abstract

Focusing on body functionality is a promising technique for improving women's body image. This study replicates prior research in a large novel sample, tests longer-term follow-up effects, and investigates underlying mechanisms of these effects (body complexity and body-self integration). British women (N = 261) aged 18-30 who wanted to improve their body image were randomised to Expand Your Horizon (three online body functionality writing exercises) or an active control. Trait body image was assessed at Pretest, Posttest, 1-week, and 1-month Follow-Up. To explore whether changes in body complexity and body-self integration 'buffer' the impact of negative body-related experiences, participants also completed beauty-ideal media exposure. Relative to the control, intervention participants experienced improved appearance satisfaction, functionality satisfaction, body appreciation, and body complexity at Posttest, and at both Follow-Ups. Neither body complexity nor body-self integration mediated intervention effects. Media exposure decreased state body satisfaction among intervention and control participants, but neither body complexity nor body-self integration moderated these effects. The findings underscore the value of focusing on body functionality for improving body image and show that effects persist one month post-intervention.

The effectiveness of interventions aiming to promote positive body image in adults: A systematic review

“…The studies took place in six countries: seven in the USA (Albertson et al, 2015;Annesi, 2005;Bush, Rossy, Mintz, & Schopp, 2014;Pinto, Clark, Maruyama, & Feder, 2003;Rodgers et al, 2018;Toole & Craighead, 2016;Wolfe & Patterson, 2017), three in the UK (Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Martijn, et al, 2018;Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Peters, et al, 2018;Jankowski et al, 2017), two in Portugal (Duarte, Pinto-Gouveia, & Stubbs, 2017;Pinto-Gouveia et al, 2017), and one study in Australia (Mellor, Connaughton, McCabe, & Tatangelo, 2017), Iran (Ahmadi, Abbaspoor, Behroozy, & Malehi, 2017), and the Netherlands (Alleva, Martijn, et al, 2015). There was significant variation in sample size between the studies, ranging from 20 to 274 participants (M = 105.7).…”

“…Thus, most of the sample were classified as adults. Nonetheless, most studies (n = 12) used women-only samples (Ahmadi et al, 2017;Albertson et al, 2015;Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Martijn, et al, 2018;Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Peters, et al, 2018;Alleva, Martijn, et al, 2015;Annesi, 2005;Bush et al, 2014;Duarte et al, 2017;Pinto-Gouveia et al, 2017;Pinto et al, 2003;Toole & Craighead, 2016;Wolfe & Patterson, 2017).…”

“…The 15 studies evaluated 13 different interventions. Studies using the same interventions were Alleva and colleagues, who used the same online writing-based intervention (i.e., Expand Your Horizon) in three studies (Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Martijn, et al, 2018;Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Peters, et al, 2018;Alleva, Martijn, et al, 2015), slightly adapting it for women with rheumatoid arthritis in one (Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Peters, et al, 2018), and Albertson et al (2015) and Toole and Craighead (2016), who used the same podcast-based self-compassion meditation intervention. However, Toole and Craighead used a shorter study duration to reduce attrition.…”

“…The most commonly used intervention approaches were self-compassion-based (n = 5) (Albertson et al, 2015;Duarte et al, 2017;Pinto-Gouveia et al, 2017;Rodgers et al, 2018;Toole & Craighead, 2016), functionality-based (n = 3) (Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Martijn, et al, 2018;Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Peters, et al, 2018;Alleva, Martijn, et al, 2015), and most employed some aspects of psychoeducation. Eight were self-directed (Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Martijn, et al, 2018;Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Peters, et al, 2018;Alleva, Martijn, et al, 2015;Annesi, 2005;Pinto et al, 2003;Rodgers et al, 2018;Toole & Craighead, 2016;Wolfe & Patterson, 2017) and seven were group-based (Bush et al, 2014;Duarte et al, 2017;Jankowski et al, 2017;Mellor et al, 2017).…”

“…One, used in three studies (Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Martijn, et al, 2018;Alleva, Diedrichs, Halliwell, Peters, et al, 2018;Alleva, Martijn, et al, 2015), was a writing-based functionality intervention, consisting of 15-minute writing tasks every two days for one week. The other three used self-compassion approaches: two used three 20-minute meditation podcasts (Albertson et al, 2015;Toole & Craighead, 2016) from the Mindful Self-Compassion…”