General And Program-Specific Moderators Of Two Eating Disorder Prevention Programs

Objective: To investigate general and program-specific factors hypothesized to moderate the effects of two eating disorder prevention programs.Method: High-risk adolescent girls (N = 481; M age = 17) were randomized to a dissonance-hased thin-ideal internalization reduction program, a healthy weight management program, an expressive-writing control condition, or an assessment-only control condition. Participants completed diagnostic interviews and surveys at pretest, post-test, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up.Results: Dissonance program effects on bulimic symptoms were stronger for participants with initial elevations in body image distress, bulimic symptoms, and thin-ideal internalization. Healthy weight program effects on bulimic symptoms were stronger for adolescents with initial elevations in body image distress, bulimic symptoms, readiness to change, body mass, and emotional eating.Conclusion: Overall, intervention effects tended to be amplified for high-risk versus low-risk adolescents. However, certain moderator effects appeared to be specific to the two different prevention programs. (C) 2008 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.