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Eating disorders (EDs) are serious, deadly disorders that emerge in adolescence and early adulthood. Further, reported incidences of EDs are increasing worldwide. As such, accessible, affordable, and effective early intervention and prevention efforts are critical. The Body Project is a well-established ED prevention program with demonstrated success at reducing ED symptom severity and the risk of onset of EDs in young females. However, it has not yet been formally evaluated in an Australian population, nor have the benefits of the treatment for young people of all genders been thoroughly investigated. This protocol paper outlines the design for a study which aims to investigate the outcomes and feasibility of the Body Project as a brief ED prevention program within an Australian youth mental health service: headspace Camperdown. This pragmatic trial will compare outcomes between a Body Project treatment group and a Treatment-as-usual control group. Primary outcomes include body image concerns, ED symptomatology and general psychological distress, measured pre- and post-treatment, and at one-month follow-up. All young people attending headspace Camperdown for care are eligible for participation in the trial. The Body Project program is comprised of four group-based 1.5 h sessions run over 4 consecutive weeks. Overall, a trial of the Body Project as an ED prevention program is warranted to investigate the outcomes of the intervention in this sample and will provide valuable information about the feasibility for widespread implementation of the treatment as part of a stepped-care approach to intervention for EDs at youth mental health service locations across Australia. ANZCTR Trial Registration Number: ACTRN12623000695606 (registered 29 June 2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deficits regulating emotions are a core process underlying both substance use and mental health disorders. Research has focused on identifying one-to-one associations between individual emotion regulation (ER) strategies and mental health symptoms. Consequently, little is known about how patterns of ER relate to a broad range of psychopathology, in treatment seeking young people. Latent class analysis was used to examine patterns of ER strategies and their relationship with symptoms of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use and borderline personality disorder, in a sample of young treatment seekers. Participants were young people (N = 306, M = 20.8 years) accessing youth advocacy and support or mental health services in Australia. Participants recalled an emotionally-arousing event experienced when on their own and indicated their use of 14 possible ER responses in an online questionnaire. Symptoms of mental health and substance use were measured. The LCA identified three distinct classes of ER responses: Ruminators/avoiders (n = 76), active regulators (n = 81), and low regulators (n = 129). The ruminators/avoiders endorsed the most severe symptom picture across all disorders except alcohol use. Within this cohort, distinct patterns of ER responding had unique relationships with symptoms of psychopathology. The deleterious impact of heightened maladaptive ER strategies (rumination and avoidance) in the absence of adaptive strategies was highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]