The effectiveness of brief animated films as a scalable micro-intervention to improve children’s body image: A randomised controlled trial

Systematic Review of Digital Interventions for Adolescent and Young Adult Women's Body Image

“…Psychoeducational approaches, which involve educating individuals about aspects of body image, were employed in five studies, but varied in terms of content and were often delivered in conjunction with other approaches. There was mixed support for psychoeducational approaches with marginal-small reductions in body dissatisfaction reported by some studies at post-test but not at follow up ( 53 , 54 ), and no effects observed in others ( 59 ). Matheson et al ( 60 ) and Halliwell et al ( 56 ), who delivered psychoeducation via short “playable” games, social media posts and educational videos also found that psychoeducation had some potential to improve body image particularly in younger adolescents/children.…”

“…There was mixed evidence for structured internet-based approaches containing lesson content, activities, personalized feedback, engagement reminders and discussion forums; while Franko et al's, ( 53 , 54 ) psychoeducation interventions, and Serdar et al's ( 62 ) dissonance intervention, were found to improve body image, some [e.g., ( 52 , 58 , 64 )] were not. Interventions that singularly incorporated thought exercises, writing and/or mindfulness/breathing in response to video content, were mostly effective in improving body image [e.g., ( 51 , 55 , 63 )]; however similar, didactic approaches ( n = 2) were more limited in their capacity to improve body image ( 56 , 59 ). This suggests that interactive approaches may be more appropriate for improving body image compared with didactic approaches, but given mixed results, further research is required identify which delivery format is more appropriate for improving body image.…”

Examining the efficacy of video‐based microinterventions for improving risk and protective factors for disordered eating among young adult women

“…An alternative approach is the use of microinterventions, a term which has recently emerged and been used to describe brief self‐guided therapeutic activities designed for immediate and targeted benefit, in either single or repeated administration (Elefant, Contreras, Munoz, Bunge, & Leykin, 2017; Fuller‐Tyszkiewicz et al, 2019). They typically are designed to be easily accessible (e.g., brief videos and audios, animations, writing tasks) via digital technologies (e.g., websites and online platforms, smartphone apps), offering potential to be widely disseminated at low cost (e.g., via social media, charities, service providers) to enable broad reach (Matheson, Lewis‐Smith, & Diedrichs, 2020). Importantly, framing microinterventions as quick and effective tools with a focused objective (i.e., targeting particular threats or aspects of well‐being) may encourage individuals with less need or motivation for intensive intervention to engage and receive benefit.…”

Improving body image at scale among Brazilian adolescents: study protocol for the co-creation and randomised trial evaluation of a chatbot intervention

“…Using these inputs, our simulations indicated power was > .99 for all cross-level interaction effects regardless of input values, and > .80 for all within-person effects with the exception of scenarios where: (1) the random slope variance was small, or (2) a small-to-moderate random slope variance was accompanied by a small number of within-person estimates (average cluster size of 3–4). These scenarios of small random variance coupled with a small estimated effect size are unlikely based on best available evidence from past studies [ 23 – 25 ]. Thus, our sample size is likely to be sufficient across a range of plausible data scenarios.…”

“…Micro-interventions are a promising strategy for addressing mental health among Brazilian adolescents, particularly due to the high percentage of young people with internet access (86%) and a social media network (68% [ 18 ];). Recently, micro-interventions have proven effective at producing immediate and short-term body image and mental health benefits among adolescents and young adults in Australia [ 23 ], the UK [ 24 ] and the US [ 25 ]. Until now, chatbot technology has not been developed or evaluated within a micro-intervention framework [ 26 ], nor has an evidence-based micro-intervention been purpose-built for Brazilian populations.…”