Overvaluation of Weight and Shape Intervention vs The Body Project

Pilot Testing Overvaluation of Weight and Shape Intervention vs The Body Project

Priorities aims to reduce body image concerns, prevent eating disorders, bolster self-esteem, and promote mental and emotional health by helping participants identify and nurture alternative sources of self-worth. Priorities would use group discussions, role-plays & behavioral challenges, homework assignments & letter-writing, and self-worth activism to achieve this. The Priorities intervention will be compared to The Body Project (an existing and successful harm reduction and eating disorder prevention program) for its effectiveness of reducing body image concerns and eating disorder outcomes. This study aims to evaluate whether there is a more effective eating disorder prevention program than The Body Project.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Body Image; Body Dysmorphic Disorders; Eating Disorders; Self-esteem; Mental Health Outcomes
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Priorities; Behavioral: Body Project

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 90
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Jasmine Lopez, BA; Phone Number: 760-905-1706; Email: jasglo@stanford.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Nicole E Dunkel, BA; Phone Number: 281-704-5033; Email: ndunkel@stanford.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Stanford, California, United States, 94305
      • Stanford University
      • Contact: Eric Stice, PhD; Phone Number: 5412220615; Email: estice@stanford.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Female-identifying
• High School
• College Adolescents
• Ages 14-22

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-female identifying
• Outside of the United States

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Priorities; Arm: Participants randomly assigned to receieve the priorities intervention Priorities aims to reduce body image concerns, prevent eating disorders, bolster self-esteem, and promote mental and emotional health by helping participants identify and nurture alternative sources of self-worth. Priorities would use group discussions, role-plays & behavioral challenges, homework assignments & letter-writing, and self-worth activism to achieve this. Priorities script: https://shorturl.at/UzWQG	Behavioral: Priorities; Priorities aims to reduce body image concerns, prevent eating disorders, bolster self-esteem, and promote mental and emotional health by helping participants identify and nurture alternative sources of self-worth. Priorities would use group discussions, role-plays & behavioral challenges, homework assignments & letter-writing, and self-worth activism to achieve this. Priorities script: https://shorturl.at/UzWQG
Active Comparator: Body Project; The Body Project is the only ED prevention program that has repeatedly reduced future onset of EDs, produced effects when evaluated by independent researchers, produced stronger effects than credible alternative interventions, and affected objective outcomes (Stice et al., 2019). The Body Project is a dissonance-based ED prevention program wherein high-risk young women with body image concerns collectively critique pursuit of the thin appearance ideal in verbal, written, and behavioral exercises. It has produced greater reductions in risk factors (pursuit of the thin ideal, body dissatisfaction, dieting, negative affect), ED symptoms, and future ED onset over a 2- to 4-year follow-ups than assessment-only control conditions and alternative interventions in over 25 controlled trials (e.g., Becker et al., 2010; Ghaderi et al.,2020; Halliwell & Diedrichs, 2014; Stice et al., 2000, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2020). Link to script: https://shorturl.at/6SSmP	Behavioral: Body Project; The Body Project is the only ED prevention program that has repeatedly reduced future onset of EDs, produced effects when evaluated by independent researchers, produced stronger effects than credible alternative interventions, and affected objective outcomes (Stice et al., 2019). The Body Project is a dissonance-based ED prevention program wherein high-risk young women with body image concerns collectively critique pursuit of the thin appearance ideal in verbal, written, and behavioral exercises. It has produced greater reductions in risk factors (pursuit of the thin ideal, body dissatisfaction, dieting, negative affect), ED symptoms, and future ED onset over a 2- to 4-year follow-ups than assessment-only control conditions and alternative interventions in over 25 controlled trials (e.g., Becker et al., 2010; Ghaderi et al.,2020; Halliwell & Diedrichs, 2014; Stice et al., 2000, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2020). Body Project Script: https://shorturl.at/6SSmP

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Priorities Questionnaire- updated	Participants will be surveyed on the following measures before and after the intervention: self-report measure of weight/shape overvaluation, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, harms from social media scale and mental health scales, depression questionnaire, anxiety questionnaire, PANAS scale for negative affect, as well as the self-report Eating Disorder Diagnostic Screen (assessing eating disorder symptoms using the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Survey (EDDS), a brief self-report scale. The EDDS symptom composite contains convergent validity with the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Interview (EDDI) as well as closely aligned diagnosis).	Both Priorities and the Body Project consist of four 1-hour weekly sessions occurring over four weeks. The questionnaire will be administered at baseline (before session 1), post-test (after session 4), 1 month follow up, and 3 month follow up.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Stanford University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Eric Stice, PhD, Stanford University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): July 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 21, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 28, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): July 1, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 1, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 28, 2026
• Last Verified: June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: self-esteem; Female; Eating disorder; adolescent mental health; Disordered eating; Priorities; Body project; Body dysmorphia
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Signs and Symptoms, Digestive; Somatoform Disorders; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Signs and Symptoms; Feeding and Eating Disorders; Body Dysmorphic Disorders; Delivery of Health Care; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation; Health Care Economics and Organizations; Health Planning; Health Priorities
• Other Study ID Numbers: 79760

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: The study collects sensitive mental health and eating disorder data, and the pilot sample size presents risks of re-identification.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No