Support stance in carers of adults with eating disorders: Factors associated with collaborative versus directive approaches.

Unlabelled: The support provided by family and friends is integral to patient motivation and clinical outcomes across health care populations. However, little is known about factors that promote or interfere with the type of support offered.

Objective: This research examined factors associated with collaborative versus directive support among carers of adults with eating disorders.

Developing and Pilot Testing the Readiness and Motivation Interview for Families in Pediatric Weight Management.

Clinical acumen is often used to assess families' motivation prior to initiating pediatric obesity management due to a lack of available tools. The purpose of this pilot study was to (i) develop and (ii) pilot test the "Readiness and Motivation Interview for Families" (RMI-Family) in pediatric weight management. We conducted 5 focus groups with parents (n = 15), youth with obesity (n = 11), and health care providers (n = 8) to explore perceptions of barriers to making healthy behaviour changes, which led to the creation of the RMI-Family as a semi-structured interview.

Effectiveness of a peer-delivered dissonance-based program in reducing eating disorder risk factors in high school girls.

Objective: This pilot study investigated the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a peer-led dissonance-based eating disorders (ED) prevention/risk factor reduction program with high school girls.

Method: Ninth grade girls (n = 50) received the peer-led program within the school curriculum. A quasi-experimental design was used to assess changes in ED risk factors preintervention and postintervention compared with waitlist control.

The psychometric properties of the Readiness and Motivation Questionnaire: a symptom-specific measure of readiness for change in the eating disorders.

Readiness for change, as assessed by the readiness and motivation interview (RMI), predicts a number of clinical outcome variables in eating disorders including enrollment in intensive treatment, symptom change, dropout, and relapse. Although clinically useful, the training and administration of the RMI is time consuming. The purpose of this research was to (a) develop a self-report, symptom-specific version of the RMI, the readiness and motivation questionnaire (RMQ), that can be used to assess readiness for change across all eating disorder diagnoses and (b) establish its psychometric properties.

The efficacy of a brief motivational intervention for individuals with eating disorders: a randomized control trial.

Objective: Individuals with eating disorders are often ambivalent about recovery, and previous research has shown that readiness for change predicts enrollment in intensive treatment, symptom change, dropout, and relapse. Given the demonstrated importance of readiness for change, researchers and clinicians have turned to investigating interventions designed to enhance motivation. The purpose of this research was to determine the efficacy of Readiness and Motivation Therapy (RMT), a five-session individual preparatory intervention for individuals with eating disorders.

Responsiveness of the Eating Disorders Quality of Life Scale (EDQLS) in a longitudinal multi-site sample.

Background: In eating disorders (EDs), treatment outcome measurement has traditionally focused on symptom reduction rather than functioning or quality of life (QoL). The Eating Disorders Quality of Life Scale (EDQLS) was recently developed to allow for measurement of broader outcomes. We examined responsiveness of the EDQLS in a longitudinal multi-site study.

Addressing the EDNOS issue and improving upon the utility of DSM-IV: classifying eating disorders using symptom profiles.

Objective: To compare the descriptive and clinical utility of two classification systems: DSM-IV eating disorder diagnoses and proposed symptom profiles. The symptom profiles are based on the presence of overvalued ideas about shape/weight, as well as combinations of three key eating disorder symptoms (e.g.

Factors associated with improvements in readiness for change: low vs. normal BMI eating disorders.

Objective: To examine factors associated with improvements in readiness for change as a function of body mass index (BMI) in individuals assessed for eating disorders treatment.

Method: Participants (n = 128) completed the Readiness and Motivation Interview (RMI) and measures of psychiatric and eating disorder symptoms, quality of life, and self-esteem at baseline and at 5-month follow-up.

Results: Participants whose readiness for change showed improvements in psychiatric symptom severity, global self-esteem, and in the importance of friendships as a determinant of self-esteem.

Assessing readiness for change in adolescents with eating disorders.

The Readiness and Motivation Interview (RMI) is a semistructured interview measure of readiness and motivation to change that can be used for all eating disorder diagnoses. The RMI has demonstrated excellent psychometric properties and has both clinical and predictive utility in adult samples. This study examined the psychometric properties of the RMI in a younger population, namely, 12- to 18-year-old girls with eating disorders.

Development and multi-site validation of a new condition-specific quality of life measure for eating disorders.

Background: In eating disorders (EDs) treatment, outcome measurement has traditionally focused on symptom reduction rather than functioning or quality of life (QoL). Generic QoL measures lack sensitivity for some diagnoses and many not be responsive in eating disorder patients. This article describes the development and validation of a condition-specific QoL measure for adolescents and adults with eating disorders--the Eating Disorders Quality of Life Scale (EDQLS).

Supporting friends and family members with eating disorders: discrepancies between intentions and reality.

This study examined how female undergraduate students anticipated they would approach a friend or family member with disordered eating and what kinds of support they believed to be helpful. The relationship between eating disorder symptomatology and anticipated approaches also was examined. Participants read vignettes depicting scenarios involving a friend or family member with disordered eating and described their anticipated approach.