Examining Negative Body Talk Outcomes in a Dissonance-Based Eating Disorder Prevention Program for Men

Abstract

Previous research has shown that engagement in male negative body talk is common and related to muscularity-oriented behaviors and traditional disordered eating pathology, suggesting the importance of targeting male body talk. While dissonance-based (DB) eating disorder prevention programs for men theoretically target negative body talk, DB impacts on negative body talk for adult men remain unexplored. This study examined how a DB eating disorder prevention program impacted negative body talk (i.e., body fat talk and muscle talk) in college-aged, body-dissatisfied men in a randomized controlled trial compared to active control. Participants (N=201) were randomized to the DB intervention or active control condition and completed the Male Body Talk (MBT) scale at four timepoints (baseline, post-intervention, 1-month, and 6-month follow-ups). Contrary to our hypotheses, no condition by time interactions were found and both conditions demonstrated significant and small-medium reductions for Body Fat Talk and medium-large reductions for Muscle Talk. The current study provides preliminary evidence that interventions focused on the harmful impacts of the appearance-ideal, regardless of the inclusion of body talk targets, may be efficacious in reducing engagement in both body fat talk and muscle talk in men. Possible explanations for our findings related to measurement specificity and DB tactics are discussed, highlighting the need for future research regarding the assessment and intervention of male negative body talk.