CClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT07678554Updated Jul 7, 2026

Overvaluation of Weight and Shape Intervention vs The Body Project

An interventional study of Priorities and Body Project in Body Image, Mental Health Outcomes and Eating Disorders, sponsored by Stanford University. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to female participants aged 14 Years to 22 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-07.

Sponsored by Stanford University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
90
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
14 Years to 22 Years
Sex
Female
01

Study summary

Priorities aims to reduce body image concerns, prevent eating disorders, bolster self-esteem, and promote mental and emotional health by helping participants identify and nurture alternative sources of self-worth. Priorities would use group discussions, role-plays \& behavioral challenges, homework assignments \& letter-writing, and self-worth activism to achieve this. The Priorities intervention will be compared to The Body Project (an existing and successful harm reduction and eating disorder prevention program) for its effectiveness of reducing body image concerns and eating disorder outcomes. This study aims to evaluate whether there is a more effective eating disorder prevention program than The Body Project.

02

Conditions studied

  • Body Image
  • Mental Health Outcomes
  • Eating Disorders
  • Body Dysmorphic Disorders
  • Self-esteem

Keywords

  • Eating disorder
  • Female
  • Body project
  • Priorities
  • self-esteem
  • adolescent mental health
  • Body dysmorphia
  • Disordered eating
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
14 Years to 22 Years
Sexes eligible
Female
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Female-identifying
  • High School
  • College Adolescents
  • Ages 14-22

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non-female identifying
  • Outside of the United States
04

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
90 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Priorities

    Arm: Participants randomly assigned to receieve the priorities intervention Priorities aims to reduce body image concerns, prevent eating disorders, bolster self-esteem, and promote mental and emotional health by helping participants identify and nurture alternative sources of self-worth. Priorities would use group discussions, role-plays \& behavioral challenges, homework assignments \& letter-writing, and self-worth activism to achieve this. Priorities script: https://shorturl.at/UzWQG

    Behavioral: Priorities

  • Active comparator
    Body Project

    The Body Project is the only ED prevention program that has repeatedly reduced future onset of EDs, produced effects when evaluated by independent researchers, produced stronger effects than credible alternative interventions, and affected objective outcomes (Stice et al., 2019). The Body Project is a dissonance-based ED prevention program wherein high-risk young women with body image concerns collectively critique pursuit of the thin appearance ideal in verbal, written, and behavioral exercises. It has produced greater reductions in risk factors (pursuit of the thin ideal, body dissatisfaction, dieting, negative affect), ED symptoms, and future ED onset over a 2- to 4-year follow-ups than assessment-only control conditions and alternative interventions in over 25 controlled trials (e.g., Becker et al., 2010; Ghaderi et al.,2020; Halliwell \& Diedrichs, 2014; Stice et al., 2000, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2020). Link to script: https://shorturl.at/6SSmP

    Behavioral: Body Project

Interventions

  • BehavioralPriorities

    Priorities aims to reduce body image concerns, prevent eating disorders, bolster self-esteem, and promote mental and emotional health by helping participants identify and nurture alternative sources of self-worth. Priorities would use group discussions, role-plays \& behavioral challenges, homework assignments \& letter-writing, and self-worth activism to achieve this. Priorities script: https://shorturl.at/UzWQG

  • BehavioralBody Project

    The Body Project is the only ED prevention program that has repeatedly reduced future onset of EDs, produced effects when evaluated by independent researchers, produced stronger effects than credible alternative interventions, and affected objective outcomes (Stice et al., 2019). The Body Project is a dissonance-based ED prevention program wherein high-risk young women with body image concerns collectively critique pursuit of the thin appearance ideal in verbal, written, and behavioral exercises. It has produced greater reductions in risk factors (pursuit of the thin ideal, body dissatisfaction, dieting, negative affect), ED symptoms, and future ED onset over a 2- to 4-year follow-ups than assessment-only control conditions and alternative interventions in over 25 controlled trials (e.g., Becker et al., 2010; Ghaderi et al.,2020; Halliwell \& Diedrichs, 2014; Stice et al., 2000, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2020). Body Project Script: https://shorturl.at/6SSmP

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Priorities Questionnaire- updated

    Participants will be surveyed on the following measures before and after the intervention: self-report measure of weight/shape overvaluation, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, harms from social media scale and mental health scales, depression questionnaire, anxiety questionnaire, PANAS scale for negative affect, as well as the self-report Eating Disorder Diagnostic Screen (assessing eating disorder symptoms using the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Survey (EDDS), a brief self-report scale. The EDDS symptom composite contains convergent validity with the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Interview (EDDI) as well as closely aligned diagnosis).

    Time frame: Both Priorities and the Body Project consist of four 1-hour weekly sessions occurring over four weeks. The questionnaire will be administered at baseline (before session 1), post-test (after session 4), 1 month follow up, and 3 month follow up.

06

Study locations

1 site
  • Stanford University
    Stanford, California 94305, United States
07

References and documents

Study documents

  • Study protocol · Apr 23, 2026

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — The study collects sensitive mental health and eating disorder data, and the pilot sample size presents risks of re-identification.

08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07678554
Lead sponsor
Stanford University
Responsible party
Eric Stice (Principle Investigator, Stanford University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jul 1, 2026
Start date
Jul 1, 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
Dec 30, 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 1, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Jul 7, 2026

Study contacts

Sareena Shah
Contact
sshah04@stanford.edu
7737079798
Jasmine E Lopez, BA
Contact
jasglo@stanford.edu
7609051706
Eric Stice, PhD
principal investigator · Stanford University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Jul 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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