PREVENTION
Overview and statement of purpose
Our focus is on bringing together families, schools, healthcare professionals, and youth to promote wellness and balance between preventing obesity and unhealthy weight control practices. Only by working together can we make the changes required at home, at school, and in the community to find this middle ground and promote wellness.
Together we can participate in the 4C's (Levine & Smolak, 2006) that are essential to successful prevention efforts targeting unhealthy weight control practices, eating disorders, weight problems, and body image dissatisfaction:
- Connecting for change
- Consciousness-raising (education) related to what we want to promote and prevent
- Competence building in relation to skills required for healthy living and positive self-regard and body image
- Changes in community systems, norms and practices
Families, schools, and healthcare professionals are in an excellent position to bring about positive changes in societal norms about body image and foster healthy eating and activity early in child development. Early lessons regarding wellness and moderation promote continued wellness into adulthood.
Topics: Click on the links below for important information
Ten Factors which put people at risk for eating, weight, and body image problems:
- Dissatisfaction with your body
- Inheritance and genes
- Gender
- Age
- Going through puberty
- Sports participation
- Culture, society and the media
- Ethnicity
- Dieting and exercise
- Peer influence
References, bibliography and resources
Academy of Eating Disorders (AED) Guidelines for Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs: http://www.aedweb.org/media/Guidelines.cfm
Protective Factors for Preventing Eating, Weight and Body Image problems
Prepared by Cris Haltom, PhD
Parents, school personnel, and communities are in an excellent position to help prevent weight, body image and eating disorders by providing home and educational environments that teach, role model, and foster healthy, balanced eating, good social-psychological coping skills, body acceptance, positive body image, early intervention and positive, involved parenting.
Many risk and protective factors are not specific to a single disorder but are common to a number of disorders. Common or general protective factors have been widely studied in research about resilience. Resilience is the ability to recover from or cope successfully with significant stress or adversity (p. 76, Crago, Shisslak, & Ruble, 2001). In addition, better connections to family, friends and community, better skills at problem solving and conflict resolution, access to support services, opportunity for school success and recognition, good social skills, and prosocial peers are among several factors that protect people from mental health problems in general. Parents and school personnel have an important role to collaborate and intervene to foster protective psychological and intellectual growth in children (Crago, Shisslak, & Ruble, 2001).
Similarly, there are specific factors or characteristics which seem to protect people from developing eating disorders, weight and body image problems.
These include protective characteristics of (1) individuals, (2) family, (3) friends and peers, (4) community and school.
Click on the any of the topic links in red below for help and information about specific protective factors.
- individual
-characteristics of children and adults that protect them from developing eating, weight, and body image problems - family
-importance of family meals
-tips for parents - friends and peer
-friends and peers
-messages from society - community and school
-taking community action: cyber-prevention, mass media, social marketing, and local advocacy
-school prevention programs
-tips for teachers: teachers as positive role models
Promoting Healthy Eating
Prepared by Tara Linitz, Senior Dietetics student and Susan Travis, PhD, RD, Lecturer, both at Cornell University
Healthy eating encompasses more than a balance of nutrients needed to promote growth, development, health and wellness. This section will present a more holistic view and will define normal and competent eating as presented by Ellyn Satter, MS,RD,LCSW,BCD,Registered Dietitian and Licensed Social Worker, in her 2008 book, Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family. For more complete information go to: www.ellynsatter.com.
Also, a definition of normal eating is included as presented by Francis Berg, MS, LN, Licensed Nutritionist, Family Wellness Specialist and adjunct professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine.
