What Can Governments Do to Prevent Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Disorders?

Venue: Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre

Presenters: Professor Susan Paxton

Young Australians identify body dissatisfaction and eating disorders as major concerns, so focus has turned to possibilities for prevention. Importantly, effective prevention requires reaching whole communities rather than a small number of individuals and consequently governments need lead the way to create social change. How can governments help?

After considering what governments could do from a theoretical perspective, this talk will illustrate and evaluate public policy initiatives that are being trialled or proposed around the world. These include legislation restricting very underweight models and banning alteration of fashion images, labelling images when they have been manipulated, banning pro-ana websites, promoting voluntary codes of conduct, advertising campaigns promoting positive body image, funding education initiatives and screening, and supporting parent education. The talk will conclude with recommendations for the Australian context.

Professor Susan Paxton is Professor of Psychology at La Trobe University. An eminent international scholar, her research has concentrated on understanding risk factors for the development of body image and eating disorders, and the evaluation of prevention and treatment interventions for these problems.

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7221-what-can-governments-do-to-prevent-body-dissatisfaction-and-eating