Eating disorders

Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions, affecting young people at an alarming rate.

Dr Melissa Atkinson from the University of Bath is focusing on developing prevention and early intervention strategies to support people exhibiting known risk factors for EDs - such as body image concerns and difficulty managing emotions. While schools can effectively reach a wide range of adolescents, existing approaches to school-based interventions have been multi-lesson, one-size-fits-all programmes that rely on trained facilitators. They also present logistical challenges to deliver, and offer little flexibility or choice for adolescents and teachers using them.

Dr Atkinson will develop a new digital toolkit of 'micro-interventions', containing various brief, focused, and self-guided tools and activities. These will be developed alongside secondary school staff, students, and researchers, to ensure they are relevant, suitable, and engaging. The team will then test the toolkit in secondary schools to receive feedback from students and teachers. The researchers' goal is to provide a flexible and user-friendly resource that better suits the needs and preferences of adolescents and schools. This will improve access and engagement with valuable strategies that help reduce the risk of eating disorders in young people.

This award was supported by the Bird Song Trust.