The effectiveness of the Resilience smartphone application for eating disorder symptoms.

Resilience Smartphone Application. Resilience is based on the theory and principles of dialectical behavioral therapy skills training for eating disorders. Its focus is on teaching users adaptive coping strategies to deal with negative emotional experiences without resorting to destructive eating disorder behaviors. It does so by teaching mindfulness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance skills. Resilience is an app that has three broad sections. 1. Modules: There are 5 modules to Resilience that aim to provide psychoeducation, case studies, and detailed rationales for the skills to implement. 2. Skills: A variety of skills-based tasks are offered for users to practice or engage in-the-moment to prevent the onset or exacerbation of symptoms. 3. Reflection: Users are encouraged to log and track their emotions and thoughts over time to establish their connections with problem eating behaviors. The contents of the 5 modules are as follows: 1. Preparing for change: psychoeducational chapter about the DBT model of eating disorders as well as brief exercises designed to enhance motivation and commitment to change. 2. Connecting the dots: introduction to two fundamental techniques of DBT designed to help users understand how and why emotions can impact their eating: the diary card and chain analysis. 3. Mindfulness: teaches users about the concept of mindful awareness and theory, as well as why this state of mind is needed to address eating disorder symptoms. 4. Emotion regulation: teaches users about healthy vs. unhealthy ways of regulating emotions, and encourages systematic problem solving and daily pleasantries. 5. Distress tolerance: teaches users about the concept of distress tolerance and offers tips for helping users deal with a crisis. Resilience is designed to be completed at a self-suited pace. Users are expected to go through the modules sequentially and to engage in skills they find most effective in a given circumstance. Users are encouraged to go through one module per week, as well as encouraged to engage in skills on a daily basis. Back-end data are captured, including number of logins, number of diary entries completed, time spent on the app, screens accessed and used. Content is presented in multimedia formats, including written text, info-graphics, video tutorials, and audio recordings.