Coach-Led Body Image Intervention for Girls in Sport - Pilot
Condition: Intervention; Waitlist Control
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      According to the World Health Organization, only 15% of 11-17-year-old girls meet the
      recommended daily physical movement guidelines (e.g., 60-minutes per day). Despite extensive
      research highlighting the protective factors associated with sport on both mental and
      physical health, body image concerns are a key barrier to girls' participation in and
      enjoyment of sport. Sports-related environments and society more broadly further exacerbate
      these concerns through harmful gender stereotypes that perpetuate female objectification,
      discrimination, and harassment. This includes the promotion of unrealistic and sexualized
      appearances of female athletes, uncomfortable and objectifying uniforms, and appearance and
      competence-related teasing from male and female peers, as well as coaches.

      The magnitude of this issue and how best to address it, can be understood from a
      socioecological perspective. Researchers suggest developing multi-faceted and multi-tiered
      approaches that have scope for targeting the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and
      societal levels. The current research will test the first coach delivered embodying sports
      program for girls that will be implemented through sporting organizations. The Body Confident
      Athletes program was co-created with girls and coaches through an international
      multi-disciplinary partnership between academics, health professionals, industry, and
      community organizations. Multi-disciplinary partnerships can create a supportive landscape by
      upskilling girls and influential community members (e.g., coaches) in dealing with body image
      concerns, which will likely lead to sustained sports participation and biopsychosocial
      benefits.

      As such, the aim of the present study is to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to
      evaluate the effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of the Body Confident Athletes
      program. The program consists of five 60-minute sessions delivered by coaches to adolescent
      girls. Each session tackles a distinct theme related to body image in the sporting context.
      Outcomes will be assessed at pre- and post-intervention (5 weeks later) and include body
      image (primary outcome), sport enjoyment and embodied experiences (secondary outcomes), and
      feasibility, acceptability, and adherence (process outcomes). The comparison control arm will
      be a waitlist control condition.

      To undertake this project, sporting organizations will be cluster-randomized into the
      intervention group or the control group, with 80 girls anticipated in each arm. Those in the
      intervention condition will complete baseline assessments (target outcomes and demographic
      information), take part in the five-week intervention, and then complete the
      post-intervention assessments (target outcomes and feasibility and acceptability measures).
      Those in the waitlist control condition will complete the baseline assessments (target
      outcomes and demographic information) and a second assessment five weeks later (target
      outcomes only), after which they will get access to the intervention. However, their
      engagement with the intervention will not be monitored or assessed. At completion of the
      post-intervention survey, all participants will receive a debrief form, outlining the study
      aims and objectives, and additional resources for body image and eating concerns. Lastly, to
      compensate participants for their time, girls and coaches will receive an electronic voucher
      to the value of $60 dollars.

      The investigators hypothesize that girls who take part in the Body Confident Athletes
      intervention will report better body image, greater sport enjoyment, and higher levels of
      embodiment at post-intervention than girls who do not take part in the intervention.
    


Intervention name(s): Body Confident Athletes
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The Body Confident Athletes program is a five-session in-person program designed to be delivered by coaches to their athletes. Groups should be of approximately 10 girls. The organizations will work with the community partner and researchers on how to schedule the intervention over a five-week period. These sessions can replace a regular sport practice each week or an additional session can be organized by the sport organizations. Each session will take approximately 60 minutes and will consist of four phases, including The Game Plan (5 mins), The Skills (20 mins), Game Time (20 mins), and The Final Score (15 mins). A variety of activity modalities are utilized to convey learning outcomes, including group and individual activities, and discussion-, writing- and movement-based activities.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Triple (Participant, Care Provider, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Body image; Embodiment; Girls; Athletes; Coaches; Task shifting