ArticleJournal of eating disorders2025
Improving body image in female Chinese social media users with eating disorder symptoms: a randomized controlled trial of two online self-guided single-session interventions.
Article in Journal of eating disorders, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cyberbullying and Problematic Internet Use as Correlates of Eating-Disorder Symptomatology and Health-Related Quality of Life in Women Under Specialized Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The Association Between Body Image and Depression: Historical Evolution and Recent Research Progress.Psychology research and behavior management · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSocial media use is a risk factor for eating and body image disturbances. The overlap between social media and eating and body image disturbances is particularly concerning in the Chinese context given an estimated billion active social media users in China, especially among females. This highlights the need for scalable, culturally adapted prevention and intervention strategies. This study developed and evaluated two online, self-guided, single-session interventions (SSIs), including a Media Literacy Intervention (MLI) and a Body Functionality-focused expressive writing Intervention (BFI), alongside waitlist controls, and examined their ability to improve body image among adult female Chinese social media users with eating disorder (ED) symptoms.
methodsA total of 204 female social media users with ED symptoms were recruited via Xiaohongshu (Little Red Note) and randomized to the MLI (n = 68), BFI (n = 68), or waitlist control group (n = 68). Primary outcomes included measures of negative and positive body image. Secondary outcomes included a range of measures including ED psychopathology and psychological distress. Assessments were conducted at baseline, 1-week post-intervention, and 4 weeks after baseline.
resultsBoth MLI and BFI interventions significantly outperformed the waitlist control on primary and secondary outcomes. The two interventions demonstrated comparable efficacy across most domains, except for eating flexibility, where BFI yielded greater improvements. Intervention uptake was high (93%), and most participants (95%) reported they would recommend the intervention to others.
conclusionsSSIs show promise as accessible, acceptable, and effective tools for improving body image and reducing ED symptoms among Chinese female social media users with ED symptoms. Future research should conduct larger-scale studies to examine their effectiveness and long-term impact.
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