The purpose of this study was to investigate if an eating disorder prevention program can change eating disorder symptoms and appearance internalization in college students. Specifically, this study examined the effectiveness of The Body Project 4 All in changing eating disorder symptoms and appearance internalization scores before and after an educational intervention in male and female undergraduate students.

Students were recruited by convenience sampling from a California State University Long Beach general education class, Nutrition 132. A pre- and post-test combining two different questionnaires was used before and after implementation of The Body Project 4 All intervention program. Paired samples and independent samples t-tests data analysis demonstrated that the program can significantly decrease eating disorder symptoms and appearance internalization, with no significant differences between men and women. These results demonstrated that a cognitive dissonance-based approach can be effective in prevention efforts for both genders.