Eating Disorder Symptom
Conditions
Brief summary
Female participants with weight and shape concerns will either receive a six-week meaning-centered intervention led by a trainer or be allocated to a waitlist condition. They will receive the same questionnaires at three time points: Before the intervention, immediately after, and four weeks later. The researchers hypothesize that a meaning-centered intervention for young women with weight and shape issues will increase participants meaning in life and decrease their eating disorder symptoms immediately after the intervention and at 4-week follow-up when compared to a waitlist condition.
Detailed description
Female first-year psychology students at the University of Groningen will be screened for weight and shape concerns. Those scoring in the clinically relevant range will be invited to participate in the study. After filling out the baseline measures online, the participants will be randomly allocated to a waitlist or an intervention condition. Participants in the intervention condition will follow a weekly 1-hour online intervention with a trainer for six weeks, including homework assignments. In this intervention, the aim is to increase meaning in life and decrease eating disorder symptoms. All study materials will be offered in English, Dutch, or German. Immediately after the intervention and four weeks later, the participants will receive the same questionnaires again as at baseline. The waitlist participants will not receive any intervention during the six-week period between baseline and post-assessment, but receive the same questionnaires in the same timeframe. Waitlist participants will also have the option to receive the intervention after the study has been finished.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALA meaning-centered intervention for young women with weight and shape concerns
* adapted version of the manualized meaning-centered psychotherapy for cancer patients developed by van der Spek et al. (2017) * six weekly individual online sessions, each lasting one hour * sessions led by a certified trainer * four sources of meaning will be explored: personal life story, dealing with life's limitations, creating one's own life, and meaningful experiences * homework assignments designed to deepen participants' experience and reflection on meaning in their daily lives
Sponsors
University of Groningen
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
16 Years to 35 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* When screened with the Weight Concerns Scale (WCS; Killen et al., 1994) and when scores of all five items were adjusted to equal a maximum score of 20, leading to a total range between 0 and 100 (cf. Jacobi et al., 2004), participant are eligible if they answer always or often to the item Do you ever feel fat? or have a total score ≥ 47 on the WCS or both
Exclusion criteria
* Current treatment for eating disorder * not fluent in English, Dutch, or German
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning in life | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Presence of meaning in life subscale of Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger et al., 2006); average of 5 items with 7-point Likert scale (minimum: 1; maximum 7); the higher the score, the higher the presence of life meaning |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tripartite domain of meaning in life: Purpose | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Purpose subscale of Multidimensional Existential Meaning Measure (George & Park, 2016); average of 5 items on 7-point Likert scale (minimum: 1; maximum: 7); the higher the score, the higher the sense of Purpose |
| Tripartite domain of meaning in life: Mattering | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Mattering subscale of Multidimensional Existential Meaning Measure (George & Park, 2016); average of 5 items on 7-point Likert scale (minimum: 1; maximum: 7); the higher the score, the higher the sense of Mattering |
| Eating disorder symptoms | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Global score of Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (Fairburn & Beglin, 2008); average score of 22 items on a 7-point Likert scale (minimum: 0; maximum: 6); the higher the score, the more severe the eating disorder symptomatology |
| Tripartite domain of meaning in life: Comprehension | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Comprehension subscale of Multidimensional Existential Meaning Measure (George & Park, 2016); average of 5 items on 7-point Likert scale (minimum: 1; maximum: 7); the higher the score, the higher the sense of Comprehension |
| Depressive symptoms | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Depression subscale of Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995); sum score of 7 items on a 4-point Likert scale (minimum: 0; maximum: 21); the higher the score, the more severe the depressive symptomatology |
| Anxiety symptoms | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Anxiety subscale of Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995); sum score of 7 items on a 4-point Likert scale (minimum: 0; maximum: 21); the higher the score, the more severe the anxiety symptoms |
| Stress symptoms | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Stress subscale of Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995); sum score of 7 items on a 4-point Likert scale (minimum: 0; maximum: 21); the higher the score, the more severe the stress symptoms |
| Internalizing symptoms | Baseline (week 1), post-assessment (week 7), follow-up (week 11) | Total score of Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995); sum score of 21 items on a 4-point Likert scale (minimum: 0; maximum: 63); the higher the score, the more severe the internalizing symptomatology |
Countries
Netherlands
Outcome results
None listed