A preliminary controlled evaluation of an eating disturbance psychoeducational intervention for college students.

OBJECTIVE Because conventional preventive interventions have had little success in reducing eating pathology, we developed and evaluated a more intensive psychoeducational intervention. METHOD Female college students who underwent this intervention and a matched control sample of students (N = 66) completed pretest and posttest surveys. RESULTS Intervention participants showed significant decreases in thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dieting, eating disorder symptoms, and weight over the 4-month study period, whereas matched control participants did not show changes in these outcomes with the exception that they gained weight. DISCUSSION These preliminary findings suggest that this intervention may prove useful in reducing eating disturbances and overweight among college students, as well as the risk factors for this serious mental and physical health problem.