Body Distorted Images, Self Esteem
Conditions
Keywords
body satisfaction, self esteem, weight-based bullying and teasing
Brief summary
The objective of the Efficacy Study of Amazing Me Program is to deliver the Amazing Me intervention and assess its efficacy. The Amazing Me intervention aims to help children between the ages of 9 and 11 build self-esteem, body confidence, and eliminate weight-based bullying and teasing. The Amazing Me intervention teaches students to be kind to themselves, their bodies, and to others.
Detailed description
Body dissatisfaction is one of the most robust risk factors for developing unhealthy behaviors, low self-esteem, and contributes to anxiety and depression in adolescence. Despite evidence that body dissatisfaction can emerge during the elementary school years, the majority of body confidence programs are for girls over the age of 15. There is very little to no research on interventions for elementary school children. The Body Project is an empirically supported body confidence prevention program for high school girls with over 100 articles to support its efficacy, effectiveness and theoretical model; it is the only body confidence program for youth to acquire the Blueprints Certification. Together with two 4th and 5th grade teachers, the investigators have adapted the Body Project curriculum for youth between the ages of 9 to 11 years old (i.e., 4th and 5th graders). The curriculum is called Amazing Me and will be implemented in classrooms by teachers. The curriculum was developed meeting several competencies for national health and wellness standards for elementary students. The aim of the current study is to conduct a national randomized control trial of the curriculum 100 classrooms with 4th and 5th graders. The primary aim of the current study is to deliver the Amazing Me intervention and assess its efficacy. It is hypothesized that compared to controls, children that undergo the body confidence curriculum will report higher body satisfaction and body esteem scores, overall greater self-esteem, and will report less engagement in appearance comparisons.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALAmazing Me
The Amazing Me Program is an evidence-based program designed to help children between the ages of 9 and 11 build self-esteem, body confidence, and eliminate weight-based bullying and teasing. This school-based curriculum satisfies national educational health requirements and provides tools for teachers to implement in 4th and 5th grade classrooms.
Sponsors
Arizona State University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
A randomized controlled trail will be conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of the Amazing Me intervention in 9-11 year old children. The randomized controlled trial will consist of an intervention and control group. Between 100 to 180 classrooms will be randomized to control or intervention condition. Randomization distribution will be 50%; thus, half of the educators/classrooms will be in the intervention and half in the control. We estimate about 30 students per teacher, yielding a maximum of 2,700 students randomized to intervention and 2,700 students randomized to control. Educators and school districts will be recruited to participate. Educators and students will complete an online baseline survey and another survey after the intervention. Finally, a 6-month and 12-month follow-up survey will be conducted for students.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
9 Years to 11 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Educators teaching 4th and 5th graders. Thus students will be on average between 9 and 11 years old.
Exclusion criteria
* None.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Body-Esteem Scale | Baseline, | The Body-Esteem Scale is a 24-item self-report measure designed for use with children. The items were developed to assess how children feel about themselves and how they believe others view them. Sample items include I like what I look like in pictures and There are lots of things I'd change about my looks if I could. Children responded by selecting yes or no for each item. In this study, children were also given the option of selecting I don't want to answer. This scale has been found to be a reliable measure of body esteem in children as young as 7 years old. All items from this scale were used in the pilot study. |
| Physical Appearance Related Teasing Scale | Baseline | The Physical Appearance Related Teasing Scale was adapted for the current study. The original scale consists of 18 items with two factors: weight/size teasing and general appearance teasing. Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 14, 16, 17, 18 were used in the current study. Items 1-6 load onto the weight/size teasing factor and items 14, 16, 17-18 load onto the general appearance teasing factor. Items were modified to be developmentally appropriate. The Perception of Teasing Scale (POTS) was incorporated to measure perceptions of distress where participants were asked to rate the degree to which they were upset by the teasing on a 3-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not upset) to 3 (very upset), modified from the original The POTS was originally developed with adults and has been used extensively with children and adolescents. |
| Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale | Baseline | A 10-item scale that measures global self-esteem by measuring both positive and negative feelings about the self. Items were modified to be developmentally appropriate for children. Example items include I like myself and I feel there are a lot of good things about me. The scale is uni-dimensional. All items are answered using a 4-point Likert scale format ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. In this study, children were also given the option of selecting I don't want to answer. All items from this scale were used in the pilot study. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Appearance Conversations Scale | baseline | The Appearance Conversations Scale assesses the frequency with which participants report talking about their bodies and appearance with friends. In the original measure, responses are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from never (1) to very often (5). In the current study, the scale was modified to a 3-point Likert scale ranging from never (1) to a lot (3) to be developmentally appropriate. |
| Teacher Satisfaction Scale | baseline | This is a three item measure assessing satisfaction with curriculum, on a 5-point Likert scale. |
| Figure Rating Scale | baseline | were developed based on adult figure drawings by Stunkard, Sorenson, and Schulsinger (1983). Figures were created to illustrate body weight ranging from very thin to obese. This scale can be used to assess preferences and perceptions of self, ideal self, ideal other child, other adult, and ideal other adult. In the current study, self and other-gender were used. For example, if participants identified as girls, they were presented with corresponding figure drawings for self (which picture looks the most like you?) and figure drawings of boys for other-gender (which picture shows the way you think is best for girls/boys to look?) |
| Fidelity and Adherence Coding | 6 weeks after baseline | This is a 10 item measure coded by raters assessing the extent to which teacher's administer the program as prescribed |
| Knowledge Check Test | baseline | This is an 8 item measures that assesses comprehension and knowledge of the curriculum materials, concepts and goals |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed