Eating Disorders Awareness Week: The Effectiveness of a One-Time Body Image Dissatisfaction Prevention Session

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a body image dissatisfaction prevention session that provided information on body image and media literacy to college women. Participants were 81 undergraduates who were randomly assigned to attend either a body image intervention or a control intervention. Participants completed measures at pre- and post-intervention and at 4-week follow-up. The body image group improved significantly more than the control group on body shape concerns, but not on the other outcome variables. Efficacious interventions capable of reaching large numbers of women are necessary to help dispel the "normative discontent" prevalent today.

The State of Media Literacy

“…Media literacy interventions were found to be successful to combat the media's glamorization of smoking (Primack, Fine, Yang, Wickett, & Zickmund, 2009). Also, interventions were found to be successful in helping adolescents and young adults better process the images of models with ''perfect'' bodies and thus avoid developing eating disorders (Choma, Foster, & Radford, 2007;Evans et al, 2006;Herzog & Eddy, 2009;Levine & Murnen, 2009;Nathanson & Botta, 2003;Raich, Portell, & Peláez-Fernández, 2010;Richardson, Paxton, & Thomson, 2009;Ridolfi & Vander Wal, 2008;Wilksch, Durbridge, & Wade, 2008;Wilksch & Wade, 2009).…”

Counteracting Media's Thin-Body Ideal for Adolescent Girls: Informing Is More Effective Than Warning

“…Another intervention involved a body-image session during Eating Disorders Awareness Week on campus, which provided information on body image, eating disorders, and the portrayal of the female body in the media (Ridolfi & Vander Wal, 2008). These interventions, which targeted female college students, increased skepticism about media images, reduced beliefs that models are realistic, reduced the desire to be as thin as models, and improved body shape concerns (Irving & Berel, 2001;Ridolfi & Vander Wal, 2008).…”

“…Adolescent girls should receive objective information about realistic body images and about the extent to which portrayals are edited. Several studies have shown that various media literacy interventions have been successful in reducing social comparisons with media models by girls and their concerns with body shape (Irving & Berel, 2001;Posovac, Posovac, & Weigel, 2001;Ridolfi & Vander Wal, 2008). One example of a media literacy intervention that has been evaluated consists of a formal and Downloaded by [Flinders University of South Australia] at 01:18 08 February 2015 structured discussion following a video on how female bodies are presented in advertisements and the detrimental effects of those images on the health of women (Irving & Berel, 2001).…”

“…One example of a media literacy intervention that has been evaluated consists of a formal and Downloaded by [Flinders University of South Australia] at 01:18 08 February 2015 structured discussion following a video on how female bodies are presented in advertisements and the detrimental effects of those images on the health of women (Irving & Berel, 2001). Another intervention involved a body-image session during Eating Disorders Awareness Week on campus, which provided information on body image, eating disorders, and the portrayal of the female body in the media (Ridolfi & Vander Wal, 2008). These interventions, which targeted female college students, increased skepticism about media images, reduced beliefs that models are realistic, reduced the desire to be as thin as models, and improved body shape concerns (Irving & Berel, 2001;Ridolfi & Vander Wal, 2008).…”

Boom or Boomerang

“…It can be argued, then, that the results show an additive effect of receiving the same antismoking message over a span of fi ve or six days that results in a temporary shift in attitudes. Importantly, similar effects were observed for signifi cantly shorter (one -or two -session) interventions (e.g., Austin & Johnson, 1997 ;Banerjee & Greene, 2006Byrne, 2005 ;Nathanson & Cantor, 2000 ;Ridolfi & Vander Wal, 2008 ), suggesting that brief media literacy interventions work equally well as longer ones. For purposes of theory building and explanation, it is important to know what features of an intervention program produce necessary changes.…”