An Embodied Approach to Supporting Well-being in Girls: Applying Intervention Mapping for Program Development and Pilot Implementation

During late childhood and into early adolescence, girls begin to value themselves more for their physical appearance, experience a decreasing sense of agency, and disconnect from the experience of being in their body. These shifts, reflecting negative embodiment, are linked to a number of negative health outcomes including worsening body image, decreased physical activity behavior, and increases in disordered eating. The Find What Moves You (FWMY) program was developed for 12- to 14-year-old girls to prevent and address a number of risk factors that stem from the experience of negative embodiment. The purpose of this paper was to use intervention mapping to describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of FWMY as well as describe the results of the first pilot study. The first pilot study was designed to evaluate the feasibility, fidelity, and acceptability of FWMY. Six girls (ages 12-14) participated in an online version of the program. Results reflected moderate to high degrees of program feasibility, fidelity, and acceptability. However, acceptability of the online format was mixed, suggesting an in-person format may better meet the needs of most. Implications for the application of the intervention mapping approach for practice and the pilot study results are discussed.