An eating disorders prevention program

To develop, implement, and evaluate a school personnel training program on eating disorders.

The pretest-posttest control group design was used to examine effects of this training with 117 high school personnel. Both experimental (n = 85) and control (n = 32) groups were given a pretest and a posttest on knowledge and attitudes. The experimental group participated in a training program. Both groups were asked to keep a 3-month count of students at risk for eating disorders.

Results included a significant difference in knowledge between the experimental and control groups. School personnel in the experimental group were more likely to identify students at risk for developing eating disorders.

Training school personnel to identify students at risk for eating disorders holds promise as a strategy for dealing with this disease. All at-risk students for eating disorders should be further evaluated and additional treatment initiated as needed.