Eating Disorder Prevention Programs is an article written by Eric Stice and Heather Shaw. Through the article, Stice and Shaw evaluated the current information on eating disorders based on risks and maintenance aspects rather than on a particular analysis.
Based on the available data, Stice suggested that risks and maintenance factors could not be distinguished from diagnosis consequences without adequate information (Stice & Shaw, 2002)
. In general, the article illustrates meta-analytic procedures, the existing intervention programs, and their effects.
To understand the effects of intervention moderators, the authors assessed several eating disorder programs. Moderators were chosen on a theoretical basis.
From all the programs evaluated, 53% of the intervention strategies led to a reduction on risk factors associated with eating disorders. Alternatively, 25% of intervention strategies led to a significant drop in eating disorders (Stice & Shaw, 2002).
After an extensive research, Stice and Shaw discovered that some intervention strategies led to a reduction on both risk factors and eating disorders. With these findings, Stice believed that they had accomplished innovative developments in food pathology (Stice & Shaw, 2002).
In my opinion, the authors’ findings were too insignificant to be regarded as developments. Correspondingly, various intervention effects were evaluated and found to be varying.
For instance, some intervention procedures generated effects on all outcomes while others failed (Stice & Shaw, 2002). In turn, the authors should have examined several aspects that restrained the effect sizes portrayed by interventions.
Thereafter, the authors compared moderator effect sizes and average- intervention effect sizes. For effective evaluation, the approximated mean random effect sizes for all outcomes were recorded and tabulated (Stice & Shaw, 2002).
The mean effect sizes varied from 11 to 38 at the finishing. Whereas the mean effect sizes at the follow-ups varied from 0.05 to 0.29. Stice noted that among the average effect sizes recorded, one effect size was below zero (Stice & Shaw, 2002).
Contrary to the previous findings, the average effect sizes recorded by Stice and Shaw were smaller in magnitudes. This illustrates that implementation of the program will result in reduction on risk factors associated with eating disorders.
In this regard, Stice and Shaw’s efforts have been acknowledged numerously in several texts. However, it should be noted that their findings on average sizes were relatively small.
For instance, if the intervention program is implemented on 10 million girls, 60 thousand girls will respond to the program (Stice & Shaw, 2002). This implies that the program effectiveness is quite small.
After analyzing the article, I identified that the review provides a superior methodology. I do believe that, the program has several implications on eating disorders.
If supplemented with other protective factors, there will be a significant decrease in cases of eating disorders (Davison & Neale, 2001). On the other hand, I noted that the program proposed was characterized by practical discrepancy.
As such, the program will always be a challenge to implement due to its complexity. For effective eating disorder programs, food pathologists should carry out more research rather than relying on the current programs (Maj, 2003).
While doing so, these experts should focus more on addressing theoretical, practical, and arithmetical limitations illustrated by Stice and Shaw.
Similarly, the experts should contrast current and past programs. By doing so, they would identify the most promising intervention approach for further investigations.
References
Davison, G. C., & Neale, J. M. (2001). Abnormal psychology (8th ed.). New York. John , Wiley.
Maj, M. (2003). Eating disorders. Chichester, England: John Wiley.
Stice, E., & Shaw, H. (2002, June 4). Eating Disorder Prevention Programs: A Met Analytic Review. Psychological Bulletin . Retrieved from homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/group/sticelab/reprints/SticeShawPB04.pdf