Evaluating Dove Confident Me in India

Summary

Body image is one of the leading concerns for young people. Such concerns can have serious health consequences, including unhealthy weight control and exercise behaviours, depression and self-harm, low self-esteem and substance abuse. Emerging approaches for improving body image are effective among adolescent girls and boys in the school setting. However, the vast majority of trials in this area are conducted in high-income westernised countries, despite body image concerns increasingly being recognised as a global concern. As such, it is important to develop and disseminate interventions to promote positive body image among adolescents in in low-to-middle income countries, too. 'Confident Me' has been found to be effective in improving body image and related outcomes among adolescent girls and boys in the UK up to 12-months later, and thus, could undergo adaptations for the Indian context.

The aim of the present study is two-fold:

* To conduct a small-scale acceptability study of a 'Confident Me', a body image intervention, among 11-13-year olds in New Delhi, India, to understand its acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy in a metropolitan area of India.
* To refine 'Confident Me' based on the acceptability study, and to conduct a randomised controlled trial to evaluate its efficacy at improving body image and related outcomes among 11-13-year olds in New Delhi, India.

The first aim will be fulfilled by recruiting two schools, of which one will be randomised to the intervention and the other to the control arm. We will compare the body image and well-being of students who take part in the programme to students in the control group. The investigators will also gather in-depth feedback from students, teachers and the interventionist via focus groups and interviews, in order to inform future improvement of the programme. The second aim will be fulfilled by randomising six schools to either the revised body image programme (3 schools) or the control arm (3 schools). Students will complete questionnaire assessments of body image and well-being before and after the 5-week programme period, and again 12 weeks later to assess longer-term benefits.

Conditions

• Body Image

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Dove Confident Me

Dove Confident Me is a school-based intervention co-created by researchers at La Trobe University (Australia), the Centre for Appearance Research UWE, teachers, students, and education experts, and the Dove Self-Esteem Project (the social mission for personal care brand Dove). The five-session intervention is aimed at adolescents aged between 11-13 years, and targets recognised risk factors for body dissatisfaction, by addressing societal appearance ideals (Session 1), media literacy (Session 2), appearance comparisons (Session 3), appearance-related conversations and teasing (Session 4), and promoting 'body activism' (Session 5). The intervention consists of classroom-based discussion and small group activities, and uses audio-visual materials and worksheets to facilitate learning.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Lady Shri Ram College for Women

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Tata Institute of Social Sciences

  collaborator OTHER

• University of the West of England

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Phillippa C Diedrichs, PhD · University of the West of England

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

11 Years

Max Age

14 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-02-01

Primary Completion

2019-06-01

Completion

2019-12-01

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations