Evaluative conditioning as a body image intervention for adolescents with eating disorders.

Abstract

Objective: The aim was to investigate whether a computer-based evaluative conditioning intervention improves body image in adolescents with an eating disorder. Positive effects were found in earlier studies in healthy female students in a laboratory and a field setting. This study is the first to test evaluative conditioning in a clinical sample under less controlled circumstances. Method: Fifty-one adolescent girls with an eating disorder and a healthy weight were randomly assigned to an experimental condition or a placebo-control condition. The computerized intervention consisted of six online training sessions of 5 minutes, in which participants had to click on pictures of their own and other people's bodies. Their own pictures were systematically followed by portraits of friendly smiling faces. In the control condition, participants were shown the same stimuli, but here, a stimulus was always followed by another stimulus from the same category, so that own body was not paired with smiling faces. Before, directly after, three weeks after and 11 weeks after the intervention, self-report measures of body image and general self-esteem were administered. Automatic selfassociations were also measured with an Implicit Association Test (IAT). Results: In contrast to our hypotheses, we did not find an effect of the intervention on self-report questionnaires measuring body satisfaction, weight and shape concern, and general self-esteem. In addition, the intervention did not show positive effects on implicit associations regarding selfattractiveness. Conclusions: These findings do not support the use of evaluative conditioning in its present form as an intervention for adolescents in clinical practice.

Body Image in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Systematic Review of the Emerging Empirical Literature

“…Some more recent therapeutic interventions targeted at body image disturbances include evaluative conditioning (cf. [ 47 ]) or mirror exposure therapy [ 5 ]. However, further research is necessary to explore the efficacy of those therapies in patients with BPD.…”

Time to make a change: A call for more experimental research on key mechanisms in anorexia nervosa

“…Klaske A. Glashouwer https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0883-1189 Valentina Cardi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7763-7099 Cheri A. Levinson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8098-6943 Ulrike Schmidt https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1335-1937 Kate Tchanturia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8988-3265 Tracey D. Wade https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4402-770X Angela Favaro https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6540-5194 Janet L. Treasure https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0871-4596 ENDNOTE 1 Although not included in our selection, some RCTs in which an intervention is targeting one specific mechanism could also be seen as experiments (e.g., Glashouwer, Neimeijer, de Koning, Vestjens, & Martijn, 2018;Hibbs et al, 2015;Levinson et al, 2015;Sproch, Anderson, Sherman, Crawford, & Brandt, 2019;Steinglass et al, 2018).…”

“…An option to amplify (the power and duration of) effects may be to intensify the dose of the manipulation in order to manipulate more ingrained mechanisms, for example, by administering several sessions within a short time period. Add-on designs can be employed in which the effects of 'miniinterventions' are investigated next to treatment as usual to overcome problems with randomisation to control conditions (e.g., Glashouwer et al, 2018;Turton et al, 2018). Finally, where appropriate, online experiments may be considered as alternatives to laboratory studies.…”

A Brief Mobile Evaluative Conditioning App to Reduce Body Dissatisfaction? A Pilot Study in University Women

“…However, some limitations still need to be overcome. Indeed, apart from a study by Glashouwer et al (2018) which used an online EC procedure on a clinical sample (and did not find an effect of the intervention), experimental interventions based on EC targeting body dissatisfaction are currently restricted to controlled laboratory situations (participants are trained in laboratories, they wear standardized clothes). Technologies allowing laboratory methodologies to be easily delivered in the everyday world are needed.…”