[Eating disorder prevention program--pilot study].
AIM: Recent research has suggested that school-based programmes of prevention of eating disorders obtained ambiguous results. The aim of our work was to establish the efficacy of the eating disorders prevention programme for schoolgirls of secondary schools. METHOD: Subjects in the experimental groups received 8 sessions of practice with various tasks, while the control group did not participate in sessions of psychoeducation. Overall, we examined 109 adolescents participating in sessions and 117 adolescents in the control group. Participants were examined at the beginning of the programme, after the operation and 6 months later. Assessment was made with EDI, EAT-26. RESULTS: Assessment before and after the study phase showed that participants in the experimental groups had not made significantly more improvement than the control group. It was also shown that in the two subgroups (girls form technical college and girls form college) there were significant differences in the pre-test, post-test and follow-up results. CONCLUSIONS: Similarities that were obtained through the research suggest the necessity of examining other possible relationships between chosen variables. Analysis of participants' feedback information emphasises that the changes the programme brought appeared feasible in the social functioning area (with peers, parents relations). It is not excluded that it is too late for eating disorder prophylaxis in the phase of personal development, as some researchers argue. Differences in results between schoolgirls from college and from technical college suggest some differences in risk and protective factors. It seems important to verify this.