Background: Body Positive Cornell is a collaborative project between The Body Positive, the Barre Research Lab at Cornell, and Cornell students and staff. The Body Positive is a non-profit organization offering a peer-led program to help students reduce the negative body image issues and eating problems ingrained into their daily experiences and disruptive of their academic pursuits. Cornell adapted the program, created an organizational structure, and implemented it on campus (Fall 2016). Research data collection is ongoing. We will present the program competencies, teach a sample of the leadership training and share the preliminary research data.
Objectives: 1. The five competencies of the Be Body Positive Model. 2. The essential components of a college program designed to reduce disordered eating and prevent eating disorders. 3. How community based participatory research can be used to support development and dissemination of eating disorder prevention programs.
- Introduce The Body Positive’s model to promote healthy body image, and excellent self care in college students.
- Share two of The Be Body Positive model’s “competencies” through experiential activities.
- Share how Community Based Participatory research is being used for adaptation and ongoing implementation of Body Positive at Cornell.
- Present the preliminary results of the Body Positive Cornell research project.
- Discuss future implications for prevention.
Dr. Laura Barre will share how Body Positive has been adapted and implemented at Cornell University and the results of her pilot research study of the program. Cornell University developed an infrastructure to support the implementation of The Body Positive through involvement of staff, students and academics on campus. Community based participatory research methods were used to direct the implementation and refinement of the program through research of the feasibility and acceptability of the program. A theoretical model based on the core competencies was developed and research conducted on the impact of the program on participant eating disordered behaviors, self-compassion, body acceptance and intuitive eating. The infrastructure of Body Positive Cornell, the research methods and the findings will be presented. She will further discuss how community based participatory research can be used to support the development and dissemination of The Body Positive prevention program.
Laura Barre, MD, RD Dr. Barre is a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. She has a long-standing interest in community based behavioral interventions to prevent and manage disordered eating and promote healthy eating practices. In 2016, Dr. Barre partnered with The Body Positive and the Skorton Center for Health Initiatives at Cornell and initiated a study of the Body Positive Cornell program focusing on the feasibility and acceptability of the program and the impact on disordered eating in the participants. Dr. Barre is trained clinically as a dietitian and physician and completed a post-doctoral fellowship with a focus on mixed methods and community based research training. She has presented her research at national and international conferences.
Elizabeth Scott, LSCW, Co-Founder, The Body Positive Elizabeth has been practicing psychotherapy in California for twenty-seven years, specializing in eating disorders treatment. She is a member of AED and IAEDP. As Director of Training at The Body Positive she has refined the core Competencies of the Be Body Positive Model to be appropriate for the treatment as well as the prevention of eating problems. Since 1998, Elizabeth has been training students and staff in high schools and colleges to lead Body Positive programs on their campuses. She also trains and supervises eating disorders treatment professionals through professional seminars and consultation. Her experiences as a Body Positive psychotherapist are featured in Embody: Learning to Love Your Unique Body (and quiet that critical voice!). Elizabeth is passionate about her work because she believes that a healthy relationship with the body is an essential aspect of a person’s development.
