Comprehensive community prevention of disturbed attitudes to weight control: A three-level intervention program

Problems related to eating and body image, involving the desire for a thin figure, harmful means of weight control, excess weight, and eating disorders, are grave and complex phenomena whose prevalence has increased alarmingly over the past 20 years. Although these problems are becoming more widespead throughout the general population, adolescent girls and young women are at highest risk of developing eating disorders. There exists a broad consensus among researchers and therapists that all possible resources must be invested in educational and prevention programs. Preventive intervention programs attempted to date have focused on adolescent girls and have been implemented within the educational framework. Most have not proven to be particularly effective in producing long-term, meaningful changes in attitude, conceptions, and behavior. The present article proposes a comprehensive community intervention program at three levels of prevention, as implemented among the general population of a kibbutz in northern Israel.