For more information or to schedule interviews, contact Kate Lee at kate@ardellgroup.com or 858-792-4963.
The Body Project covered on CNN, TIME Magazine
Taking ‘The Body Project’ to campuses
Posted: 10:43 AM ET By Shahreen Abedin, CNN Medical Producer
Thursday, May. 29, 2008
Taking On the Thin Ideal By Sanjay Gupta, M.D.
The Body Project: Bringing Body Image Awareness and Prevention to High School Age Students
Reflections is an outgrowth of the popular "Body Project" program, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health and is geared towards providing body image and eating disorders education, awareness and prevention to high school aged students.
The Body Project is an eating disorders prevention program that targets high school and college students, giving young women an opportunity to explore the costs of pursuing the thin-ideal espoused by the mass media. Participants are given a forum to consider the personal and societal costs of pursing this unrealistic ideal through role plays, written assignments, and "body activism" home-exercises. Based on over 16 years of research, the program has been shown to reduce the risk of developing eating disorders by 61% among Body Project participants, with sustained results as long as three years after the completion of the program. In addition, it produces lasting improvements in body satisfaction, negative mood, functioning in school, peer, and family domains, and reduces the risk for onset of obesity. It is one of the first eating disorder prevention programs to have its positive results replicated by independent labs. To date, more than 1000 adolescent and young women have completed the Body Project. Tri Delta's Reflections program is closely aligned with the Body Project, and is an outgrowth of this successful program.
Parents, students, teachers and administrators who are interested in learning more about The Body Project, or how to bring this impactful program to their group or school, can check out the book on Amazon - "The Body Project: Promoting Body Acceptance and Preventing Eating Disorders Facilitator Guide". For more information on the research program, please contact Rachel Tepp at the Oregon Research Institute at (541) 484-2123.