Testing the efficacy of the Virtual Body Project in a sample of Turkish female university students using a randomized controlled trial

The current study aimed to test the effectiveness of the Virtual Body Project (vBP) on self-esteem, disordered eating attitudes, and psychological symptoms in young females. A pretest posttest control group design was used in the study. The intervention (vBP, N = 40) and placebo (Expressive Writing, N=33) groups were determined using random assignment. The Body Mass Index (BMI), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), Body Image Quality of Life (BIQLI), and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) were administered. The groups did not differ in terms of pretest scores. However, the intervention group had significantly lower EDE-Q, BIQLI, BSI scores, and higher RSES scores than the placebo group in the post-test assessment. Within-subjects comparisons showed that the placebo group's pretest and post-test scores were not significantly different. However, the EDE-Q, BIQLI, and BSI posttest scores were found to be significantly lower than the pretest scores in the intervention group. In addition, the RSES post-test scores were significantly higher than the RSES pretest scores in the intervention group. The current study indicated that the Virtual Body Project was found to be an effective intervention on eating disorder risk factors, psychological symptoms, and self-esteem in young females. It is thought that the Virtual Body Project, which is applied to groups online, makes an extremely important contribution to preventive mental health studies.