Prevention of disordered eating among college women: A clinical intervention

Abstract

A preventative intervention program was administered to a non-clinical population deemed at risk for the development of eating disorders. Two-hundred and three women from a large southwestern state university who belonged to four campus sororities participated in the intervention. Members of the two sorority houses served as the control group while members of the other two houses served as the experimental group during the eight-week intervention. The intervention consisted of five workshops involving risk factors identified with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The intervention included workshops on basic information on eating disorders, exercise, stress management, nutrition, self-esteem, and body image. Compared to the control group, the experimental group displayed significantly lower scores on the Ineffectiveness sub-scale and the Bulimia sub-scale of the Eating Disorder Inventory. The present study demonstrated that a population highly susceptible to disordered eating, was open to and positively affected by, an intervention procedure.