Abstract

OBJECTIVE The Body Project is a dissonance-based body image intervention that was originally developed to prevent the onset of eating disorders. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the key scientific Body Project findings along with a discussion of implementation successes and approaches as well as ongoing questions.

METHOD This is an invited narrative review.

RESULTS The Body Project is backed by significant efficacy and effectiveness research and has been found to reduce internalization of the appearance-ideal, body dissatisfaction, negative mood, dieting, and continuous measures of eating disorder pathology. Some variants have also been found to reduce onset of eating disorders, thus making the Body Project a true eating disorders prevention program. Despite this, many communities choose to implement the Body Project primarily for its effectiveness at improving body image under a wide range of circumstances.

DISCUSSION Although the mental health field broadly has struggled to translate efficacy and effectiveness research into widespread adoption of evidence-based programs, an informal global village comprised of researchers, community partners, and clinicians has collectively worked together to successfully implement the Body Project on a very large scale. It offers numerous lessons about the importance of theory and research in intervention development as well as the potential of community participatory research. Future directions include novel and cultural adaptations to allow flexible Body Project implementation in new contexts.