Healthy Weight Management Intervention

OVERVIEW

The Healthy Weight Management Intervention is a three-session group intervention designed to encourage girls to use healthy weight-management strategies and to reduce the prevalence of bulimic symptoms. An experimental evaluation of the program found it to have positive impacts on BMI, exercise intensity, healthy eating, bulimic symptoms, and negative affect.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Adolescent girls

The Healthy Weight Management Intervention is a group intervention designed to encourage girls to use healthy weight-management strategies. The intervention comprises three hour-long sessions with 6 to 10 participants. Sessions are facilitated by a doctoral-level clinical psychologist or a doctoral student and a bachelor’s level research assistant.

The first session introduces participants to the program and explains that body-image concerns often arise because people do not have a full grasp of healthy weight-control skills. The participants are told the program will help them make small lifestyle changes, and are not encouraged to count calories or reduce caloric intake. This session introduces the concept of a healthy ideal as preferable to a thin ideal and uses motivational interviewing to explore the advantages of the healthy ideal. Participants learn how to develop a balanced diet and are encouraged to adjust their eating and exercise habits to meet the healthy ideal. For homework, participants complete a three-day food and exercise diary to bring to the next session. 

The second session begins by asking participants to brainstorm the benefits of maintaining a healthy ideal and reminding them not to go for long periods of time without eating. Next, participants review their eating and exercise diaries and discuss the benefits of regular activity. For homework, participants are asked to list ten personally meaningful reasons to pursue a healthy ideal and they continue to complete food and exercise diaries.

The final session allows participants to discuss problems they have encountered while trying to improve dietary intake throughout the intervention and to generate ways to overcome these barriers. Participants are also asked to discuss why they signed up for the intervention and what they hoped to accomplish. For homework, participants are asked to email the facilitators their continued progress after one week.

 
EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Stice, E., Presnell, K., Groesz, L., and Shaw, H. (2005). Effects of a weight enhancement diet on bulimic symptoms: An experimental test of the diet restraint theory. Health Psychology, 24(4), 402-412.

Evaluated population: 188 adolescent girls were evaluated. The mean age of the sample was 16.7. Participants were 57 percent Caucasian, 23 percent Hispanic, 8 percent African American, 6 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 1 percent Native American, and 5 percent other or mixed race heritage. Twenty-two percent of participants’ mothers and 26 percent of participants’ fathers had advanced educational degrees.

Approach: Females between the ages of 14 and 19 with body-image concerns were recruited from high schools and a university and invited to participate in the study. Once enrolled, participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group or control group. Assessments were completed before the program began, immediately following the final session, and at 6- and 12- month follow-ups. Body Mass Index (BMI), healthy eating, exercise intensity, bulimic symptoms, negative affect, and self-reported dieting were measured at each time point.

Results: Over the follow-up period, girls who participated in the intervention had smaller increases in BMI and greater increases in exercise intensity and healthy eating than did girls in the control group. Intervention participants also had greater reductions in bulimic symptoms and negative affect than did control group girls. There was no impact on self-reported dieting.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Contact information:           

Eric Stice

Oregon Research Institute

1715 Franklin Blvd.

Eugene, OR 97403

References:

Stice, E., Presnell, K., Groesz, L., and Shaw, H. (2005). Effects of a weight enhancement diet on bulimic symptoms: An experimental test of the diet restraint theory. Health Psychology, 24(4), 402-412.

KEYWORDS: adolescents (12-17), youth (16+), young adults (18-24), high school, college, female only, white/Caucasian, other mental health, health status/conditions, nutrition, obesity, other physical health,

Program information last updated 9/16/2011.

© Child Trends 2003