Internet-delivered eating disorder prevention: A randomized controlled trial of dissonance-based and cognitive-behavioral interventions.

OBJECTIVE: The current study evaluated two web-based programs for eating disorder prevention in high-risk, predominantly ethnic minority women. METHOD: Two hundred and seventy-one women with elevated weight concerns were randomized to Internet dissonance-based intervention (DBI-I), Internet cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBI-I), or no intervention (NI). Both interventions consisted of four weekly online sessions. Participants were assessed at pre- and post intervention. Outcome measures included eating pathology, body dissatisfaction, dieting, thin-ideal internalization, and depression. RESULTS: At postintervention, DBI-I and CBI-I led to greater reductions in body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, and depression than NI. In addition, CBI-I was effective at reducing dieting and composite eating pathology relative to NI. No outcome differences were found between the active conditions. Moderation analyses suggested that both active conditions were more effective for ethnic minorities than Whites relative to NI. DISCUSSION: Results suggest that both DBI-I and CBI-I are effective at reducing eating disorder risk factors in a high-risk, predominantly minority population relative to no intervention.

Perceived parent and peer marijuana norms: the moderating effect of parental monitoring during college.

This study examined descriptive and injunctive normative influences exerted by parents and peers on college student marijuana approval and use. It further evaluated the extent to which parental monitoring moderated the relationship between marijuana norms and student marijuana outcomes. A sample of 414 parent-child dyads from a midsize American university completed online surveys. A series of paired and one-sample t tests revealed that students' actual marijuana use was significantly greater than parents' perception of their child's use, while students' perception of their parents' approval were fairly accurate. The results of a hierarchical multiple regression indicated that perceived injunctive parent and student norms, and parental monitoring all uniquely contributed to the prediction of student marijuana approval. Furthermore, parental monitoring moderated the effects of perceived norms. For example, at low but not high levels of parental monitoring, perceptions of other students' marijuana use were associated with students' own marijuana approval. Results from a zero-inflated negative binomial regression showed that students who reported higher descriptive peer norms, higher injunctive parental norms, and reported lower parental monitoring were likely to report more frequent marijuana use. A significant Parental Monitoring × Injunctive Parental norms interaction effect indicated that parental approval only influenced marijuana use for students who reported that their parents monitored their behavior closely. These findings have intervention implications for future work aimed at reducing marijuana approval and use among American college students.

Black/white differences in perceived weight and attractiveness among overweight women.

Numerous studies have reported that Black women are more satisfied with their bodies than White women. The buffering hypothesis suggests that aspects of Black culture protect Black women against media ideals that promote a slender female body type; therefore, Black women are expected to exhibit higher body esteem than White women. To test this hypothesis, the current study aimed to assess the influence of race on weight perception, perceived attractiveness, and the interrelations between body mass index (BMI) and perceived attractiveness among overweight and obese women. Participants were 1,694 respondents of Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (M = 28.89 years). Black (n = 531) or White (n = 1163) obese or overweight women were included in the current study. As expected, Black women reported lower perceived weight and higher attractiveness than White women, despite higher body mass for Black women. Furthermore, race moderated the relationship between BMI and perceived attractiveness; for White women, a negative relationship existed between BMI and attractiveness, whereas for Black women, BMI and attractiveness were not related. The study findings provide further support for the buffering hypothesis, indicating that despite higher body mass, overweight Black women are less susceptible to thin body ideals than White women.