(PS7-4) Adapted Eating Disorder Prevention Program for Adolescent Males

Introduction: Eating disorder (ED) research has historically focused on women and girls (Brown et al., 2023). While previously being stereotyped as a disorder only occurring in females (Cohn et al., 2016) recent research has shown that ED prevalence in males is increasing. For example, hospitalizations for EDs in male adolescents have increased from 5 in every 1000 to 20 in every 1000, an increase of 416% from 2002 to 2019 (Smith et al., 2023). Emerging evidence has shown that rates of ED in males are increasing at a faster rate than for females with no difference in clinical severity of symptoms across the sexes. (Gorell et al., 2019). Despite the emerging need to adapt prevention efforts to be gender inclusive, only three eating disorder prevention programs directed at reducing ED symptoms in adolescent males currently exist. However, these programs were not efficacious in decreasing body dissatisfaction. (Brown et al., 2023). The Body Project, a dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program created for college-aged women, is the only prevention program that has successfully reduced eating disorder symptoms in multiple efficacy trials conducted by independent research teams (D’Adamo et al., 2023). The Body Project has been successfully adapted for both younger age groups and college-aged males. The latter adaptation, called More than Muscles (MTM), showed high acceptability and a reduction in dietary restraint, body-ideal internalization, muscle dysmorphia, drive for muscularity, and bulimic symptoms in adult men (Brown et al., 2017). However, this program has not yet been tested in younger males. The purpose of this study was to pilot and examine the efficacy of More than Muscles in reducing body dissatisfaction, drive for muscularity, binge eating, food restriction, and weight stigma in an adolescent male population.

Methods: The present study was conducted using a sample of 73 boys ages 12-15 (M_age = 13.13, 86.3% White) from two middle schools and one high school who completed the MTM program. Paired-sample tests were conducted to evaluate changes in Eating Pathology Symptom Inventory (EPSI) subscales (weight stigma, and body dissatisfaction) and total scores from pre- to post-program.

Results: EPSI total scores significantly decreased (t[66] = 3.15, d = .29, p = .001) from pre- (M = 43.70, SD = 18.29) to post-program (M = 37.41, SD = 23.05). A Wilcoxon signed rank test of pre- to post-program subscale changes showed significant decreases in body dissatisfaction (M_change = .85, V = 1097.5, p = .01). Weight stigma did not show significant changes.

Discussion: The current study shows that a dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program adapted for adolescent males may significantly decrease body dissatisfaction and eating disorder pathology. These results highlight the importance of personalizing prevention programs for different audiences in order to increase the chance of successful outcomes. Further research is needed to establish the adaptation’s effectiveness compared to control conditions, as well as in larger, more diverse samples.