SSWR Doctoral Student Spotlight
The SSWR Doctoral Student Members Task Force is launching a new series featuring research conducted by doctoral students. The series is intended to bring awareness and attention to the research being done by social work doctoral students, as well as important issues in the field. One spotlight piece will be featured each week on the SSWR Doctoral Student Member Blog & Facebook Page during the fall 2018 semester.
A Trial of Confident Body, Confident Child
Student Researcher: Leslie Meskin, Florida Atlantic University
Leslie Meskin
About the Researcher: Leslie Meskin is part of the inaugural cohort of Social Work Doctoral Candidates at Florida Atlantic University. Leslie has been a clinician in a variety of settings since 1996. Her research interests include the prevention of eating disorders, cultural adaptation of behavioral health interventions and interprofessional education and practice.
Description of the Study: My capstone project is an uncontrolled repeated measure of Confident Body, Confident Child (CBCC), a two-time, two-hour manualized resource designed to help parents foster healthy eating patterns and body satisfaction in their young children. CBCC is an evidenced-based program that yielded significant results in decreasing risk factors associated with body dissatisfaction in children in a large randomly controlled trial in Australia.
Inspiration for the Study: Our society seeks to decrease high levels of body dissatisfaction but does not address its development. There is a need to intervene earlier to try to halt or minimize the development of body dissatisfaction rather than intervene once it is established.
Methodological Approach: This study aims to explore the effects of parental participation in the CBCC program. The participants in this study are parents of two to six-year-old children.
Challenges Encountered: A challenge to my implementation of the CBCC program was that many parents were not able to participate in the program due to language obstacles. Currently, the CBCC program is only available in English.
Questions or comments for Leslie? Email her at: lmeskin2016@fau.edu