The Effect of a Meaning-Centered Intervention on Eating Disorder Symptoms, Depression and Anxiety Among Undergraduate Women with High Weight and Shape Concerns: A Replication Study.

Jong, Michelle de (2024) The Effect of a Meaning-Centered Intervention on Eating Disorder Symptoms, Depression and Anxiety Among Undergraduate Women with High Weight and Shape Concerns: A Replication Study. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

A promising factor to add to eating disorder interventions might be meaning in life as previous studies showed that eating disorder patients report a lower meaning in life. Additionally, individuals who report lower levels of meaning in life tend to experience lower psychological well-being, including higher levels of depression and anxiety. Thus, focusing on increasing meaning in life could also decrease eating disorder symptoms, depression and anxiety. A recently developed meaning-centered psychotherapy intervention for eating disorders (MCP-ED) showed some promising results in a previous study done by Van Doornik et al. (2023). However, this study was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the current study aimed to replicate the study of Van Doornik et al. (2023) to examine the effectiveness of the MCP-ED without the influence of the pandemic. 165 female university students participated in the current study. These participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group and waiting-list control group. The experimental group received the six weekly individual sessions of the MCP-ED. The findings of this study were in line with the previous study and showed that the MCP-ED is effective in increasing meaning in life and decreasing eating disorder symptoms, depression and anxiety. Therefore, the meaning-centered psychotherapy for eating disorders (MCP-ED) could possibly be a new (add-on) treatment option for eating disorder symptoms.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Frey, M.I.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Clinical Psychology (CP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	02 Jul 2024 12:35
Last Modified:	02 Jul 2024 12:35
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3623

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