Introduction
eating disorders, eating disorder
SECONDARY, DISORDERS
Because of the serious physical and psychological impairment caused by clinical and subclinical eating disorders, and considering the burden of these disorders and the limits in treatment provision, scholars have called for the development and validation of effective prevention interventions [A turning point occurred in the field of eating disorders prevention in the 2000s when new interventions targeting risk factors were developed and evaluated. These interventions relied on models such as the Tripartite model formulated by Thompson et al. [The principles of cognitive dissonance were coined by Festinger [The Healthy Weight intervention (HW), which was the second most effective intervention for selective prevention alongside the BP, was at the start a control condition for the latter, designed by Stice et al. [In Switzerland, a population-based survey carried out in 2010 of 10’038 residents aged 15–60 years showed prevalence rates of clinical and subclinical eating disorders similar to those observed in other Western countries [The first goal of the current study was to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of the BP and HW in a population of French-speaking female students in Switzerland aged 18–25. The second goal was to preliminarily evaluate the effectiveness of both interventions in comparison with a waiting-list control group (WLCG) in reducing body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, dietary restraint, negative affect, and eating disorder psychopathology immediately after intervention, with a randomized controlled study. Third, we wanted to assess whether the observed effects were maintained after a one-month follow-up.The three hypotheses were that first, the acceptability of both interventions, as assessed by the number of sessions attended by the participants and their satisfaction with the intervention, would be good for both interventions. Second, the BP and HW would improve body dissatisfaction (primary outcome) as well as thin-ideal internalization, dietary restraint, negative affect, and eating disorder psychopathology (secondary outcomes) compared to the WLCG. Third, the post-intervention scores observed in the intervention groups (BP and HW) would be maintained after one month of follow-up.