Dr Eric Stice
Dr. Eric Stice is currently a tenured research professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute. He is the lead author of The Body Project, an eating disorders prevention program that targets high school and college students, giving young women an opportunity to explore the costs of pursuing the thin-ideal espoused by the mass media. Participants are given a forum to consider the personal and societal costs of pursing this unrealistic ideal through role plays, written assignments, and “body activism” home-exercises.
Based on more than 16 years of research, the programme has been shown to reduce the risk of developing eating disorders by 61% among Body Project participants, with sustained results as long as three years after the completion of the program. In addition, it produces lasting improvements in body satisfaction, negative mood, functioning in school, peer, and family domains, and reduces the risk for onset of obesity. It is one of the first eating disorder prevention programs to have its positive results replicated by independent labs.
To date, more than 1000 adolescent and young women have completed the Body Project. Tri Delta’s Reflections Program and The Succeed Body Image Programme are closely aligned with the Body Project, and are an outgrowth of this successful programme.
A leader in the field of cognitive dissonance based eating disorder prevention, Dr. Stice completed his undergraduate training at the University of Oregon, graduate training at Arizona State University and postdoctoral training at Stanford University. His current research focuses on the etiology and prevention of eating disorders, depression and adolescent problem behaviour.