The current project aims to examine the concept of promoting attention toward body functionality and gratitude using a weekly functionality-based mirror exposure and body functionality gratitude "journaling" text prompts three days a week for three weeks to examine whether this helps foster positive body image and decrease eating disorder symptoms in a sample of undergraduate females, a population at particularly high risk of body image dissatisfaction and consequent eating disorder development.
Specific Aim 1. First, the project aims to test a gratitude-based body functionality primary prevention program, In the Mirror: Functional Appreciated Bodies (IM FAB), that incorporates mirror exposure with a greater intervention "dose" than that piloted by Brooks and Walker. The increased dose should allow for greater ability for participants to consolidate exposure-based learning. Specifically, more time instructed to appreciate the body's functionality allows for more occasions to redirect critical appearance-oriented cognitions to appreciative, function-based cognitions. Specific Aim 2. Second, the project aims to pilot test a relatively minimalistic intervention that would be easily translated to app-based delivery format, to help overcome the most-cited barriers to prevention program participation noted by undergraduate students in universal prevention research. Specifically, undergraduate participants who were assigned to a prevention program but did not enroll questioned a need for counseling/therapy, reported preferring to deal with issues on their own, and cited a lack of time as reasons they did not enroll. Specific Aim 3. Third, the project aims to test this specific functionality mirror exposure approach largely on its own, rather than as part of a multicomponent treatment program, so that its unique contribution in preventing body image dissatisfaction, and ultimately eating disorders, can be assessed. A main goal in prevention and treatment development remains to continuously test components of body-image interventions separately for efficacy.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
275
Participants in the active interventions have three weekly mirror exposure sessions that are either guided with specific instructions as to where to look and how (only in functionality condition)
University at Albany, State University of New York
Albany, New York, United States
Union College
Schenectady, New York, United States
Change in Multidimensional Body Self-Relations Questionnaire scores (MBSRQ; Cash, 2000)
69-item questionnaire with Likert-type scale ranging from 1-5. Trait body image satisfaction with subscales assessing: Appearance Evaluation, Appearance Orientation, Fitness Evaluation, Fitness Orientation, Health Evaluation, Health Orientation, Illness Orientation, Body Areas Satisfaction, Overweight Preoccupation, and Self-Classified Weight; Scores are averaged for each subscale with a range of 1-5. Fitness, Health, and Appearance Evaluation scores that are higher reflect more positive attitudes about one's fitness, health, and appearance, respectively. Higher appearance, fitness, health, and illness orientation, and overweight preoccupation scores reflect greater investment in appearance, health, concerns about becoming ill, fitness, and preoccupation with weight. Higher Body Areas Satisfaction reflects more positive body image. Higher self-classified weight reflects self-reported higher weight categorization (e.g., overweight or obese)
Time frame: Change from Baseline MBSRQ scores to 20 weeks
Change in Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale scores (EDDS; Stice, Fisher & Martinez, 2004)
Eating disorder diagnostic scale for the DSM-5. This is a diagnostic measure, so participants respond to questions regarding binge eating, purging and other compensatory behaviors, weight and shape concern, weight loss, height, weight, and fear of weight gain to determine whether they meet diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, atypical anorexia nervosa, low frequency bulimia nervosa, low frequency binge eating disorder, purging disorder, or night eating syndrome. See http://www.ori.org/files/Static%20Page%20Files/EDDS\_5.pdf for specific scoring instructions. Higher scale scores represent greater eating disorder pathology. As a diagnostic tool, respondents need to meet DSM-5 criteria for an eating disorder based on specific item responses, and would be scored as indicating a specific eating disorder diagnosis based on those specific item responses.
Time frame: Change from baseline EDDS scores to 20 weeks
Change in Body Checking Questionnaire scores (BCQ; Reas, Whisenhunt, Netemeyer, & Williamson, 2002)
Body checking questionnaire. 23-item 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1-5. Three subscales assess: Overall appearance checking, specific body part checking, and idiosyncratic checking. Items are summed for for each subscale and for a total score. Total score ranges from 23-115. Higher scores reflect greater frequency of body checking behaviors.
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Time frame: Change from baseline BCQ scores to 20 weeks
Change in Body Image Avoidance Questionnaire scores (BIAQ; Rosen, Srebnik, Saltzberg, & Wendt, 1991)
Body image avoidance questionnaire. Measures avoidance of one's body across a range of evaluative contexts. 19 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 0-5, with three items reverse scored (12, 13, and 19). Items are summed, with a possible range from 0-95. Higher scores reflect greater body image avoidance and are typically associated with greater psychopathology.
Time frame: Change from baseline BIAQ scores to 20 weeks
Change in Body Appreciation Scale-2 scores (BAS-2; Tylka, & Wood-Barcalow, 2015)
Body appreciation measure. 10-item 5-point Likert-type scale. Items reflect accepting and holding positive views about one's body. Items are averaged with higher scores reflecting great body appreciation.
Time frame: Change from baseline BAS-2 scores to 20 weeks
Change in Functional Appreciation Scale scores (FAS; Alleva, Tylka, & Van Deist, 2017)
Scale assesses appreciation of the body's functions. 7-item 5-point Likert-type scale with items ranging from 1-5. Items are averaged with greater scores reflecting greater appreciation of the functions and capabilities of one's body.
Time frame: Change from baseline FAS scores to 20 weeks
Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX; Finstad, 2010)
4 7-point Likert-type items ranging from 0-6, after recoding, which assesses the usability and ease of the IMFAB protocol. The items are summed for a possible range of 0-24 points, with greater scores representing greater usability of the technology or protocol in question.
Time frame: Post-Intervention (Week 3)
Feasibility of mobile application scale, derived from UMUX format
5 7-point Likert-scale items and one open-ended item assessing feasibility of the IMFAB protocol delivery via mobile application. Questions range from 0-6 after recoding and are summed. Greater scores reflect higher ratings of feasibility of adopting IMFAB in mobile application format.
Time frame: Post-Intervention (Week 3)
Engagement with IMFAB protocol scale, derived from UMUX format.
9 7-point Likert-type scale items \& 3 open-ended questions assessing participant engagement with IM FAB protocol. Likert-type items range from 0-6 and are summed after reverse coding. Greater scores reflect more positive attitudes toward the intervention design (e.g., mirror exposure exercises and gratitude text prompts).
Time frame: Post-Intervention (Week 3)