Ongoing

Principal Investigator and Research Faculty: Sona Dimidjian, PhD; Anahí Collado, PhD; Antonella Onofrietti Magrassi, PhD; Jazmyne Peters, PhD; Samantha Strife, PhD

‍Community Partners: Boulder Valley School District; Girls Inc.

This study contributes to the wellness of young people with a focus on promoting body acceptance, fostering agency and leadership, and decreasing risk of disordered eating. The mind.body.voice. study also embodies the commitment to interdisciplinary participatory design, demonstrating how collaboration with participants translates our mission and vision into meaningful, real-world impact.

This project builds on our earlier study in which we developed and evaluated the mind. body. voice. (m.b.v.) curriculum for young women in middle and high school and during the transition to college. The aim of the current study is to conduct a hybrid trial Type 1 in which we address the primary aim of testing the effectiveness of the m.b.v. program and the secondary aim of describing contexts of implementation.

We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT), randomizing participants to the m.b.v. curriculum or “business-as-usual” control to examine changes in proximal and distal outcomes, including to decrease negative body judgment, to decrease internalized negative cultural messages about appearance, to increase body awareness and sense of agency, to increase positive self-regard, to improve mental health and wellness (disordered eating behavior, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and negative affect), and to improve school performance and experience (grades, attendance, school engagement and belonging). To examine barriers and facilitators to the “real-world” implementation of m.b.v., we will conduct an open trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum among middle school and high school women in a club format.

Results from this study are forthcoming. The mind.body.voice. curriculum is available through the Crown Institute as the As You Are program.

Fritzson, A. E., Schrag, B. H. C., Park, B., Strife, S., Peña Teeters, L. A., Lischwe, E. H., Bell, G. B. M., Herron, W. B., & Dimidjian, S. (2024). Enhancing body image satisfaction and well-being among early adolescents: Feasibility and preliminary outcomes of the mind. body. voice. program. Eating behaviors, 53, 101875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2024.101875

Mellinger, C., Fritzson, A., Park, B., & Dimidjian, S. (2023). Developing the Sense of Belonging Scale and Understanding Its Relationship to Loneliness, Need to Belong, and General Well-Being Outcomes. Journal of Personality Assessment, 106(3), 347–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2023.2279564

Herbstreit, D., Fritzson, A. E., Strife, S., Park, B., Dimidjian, S., & Kilimnik, C. D. (In Review). Investigating adolescent girls’ written narratives of body image and appearance biases: A qualitative analysis of letters to a younger girl. Journal of Adolescent Research.

Erickson, Miriam Clayton, Christopher Mellinger, Bernadette Park, and Sona Dimidjian. “Stereotypes About Who Is Affected by Eating Disorders Disadvantage Risk Perception for Black Girls and Women.” Sex Roles 90, no. 8 (August 2024): 1075–98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-024-01496-9.

Vanderkruik, R., Conte, I., & Dimidjian, S. (2020). Fat talk frequency in high school women: Changes associated with participation in the Body Project. Body image, 34, 196–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.06.002

Vanderkruik, R., Gist, D., & Dimidjian, S. (2020). Preventing eating disorders in young women: An RCT and mixed-methods evaluation of the peer-delivered Body Project. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 88(12), 1105–1118. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000609

Vanderkruik, R., Strife, S., & Dimidjian, S. (2017): Lessons learned from training peer-leaders to conduct Body Project workshops, Eating Disorders, DOI:10.1080/10640266.2017.1308733