Expanding the Evidence Base: The Cultural Continuum of Interventions for Eating Disorders and Related Body Image Difficulties

In the realm of interventions for eating disorders and related body image difficulties there is an increasing need for cultural sensitivity and adaptability beyond the traditionally Eurocentric models. Current evidence-based treatments are largely underpinned by Western scientific principles, views of health and illness, and assumptions of universal applicability of these treatments. There is abundant evidence that majority cultures have better access to health systems and achieve better health outcomes, including outcomes for eating disorders. Continuing to offer the same treatment models and psychotherapies to those outside of the majority culture perpetuates inequities for ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities. There is an urgent need to develop and adapt interventions that better align with the lived experience, cultural knowledge and healing traditions of culturally diverse groups. Fresh approaches are needed to meet the needs of groups traditionally under-represented in eating disorders and body image research and in treatment settings.

This Research Topic aims to explore innovative approaches beyond the current Eurocentric psychotherapeutic models by conceptualizing these options along a cultural and subcultural adaptation continuum. The main objectives include evaluating three adaptation strategies.

1. Mainstream evidence-based treatments delivered in the recommended standardized way but with appropriate recognition of, and responsiveness to, personal and clinical characteristics and delivery needs of the person coming for treatment.
2. Modified evidence-based treatment with integrated elements of relevant concepts from Indigenous, gender diverse, sexually diverse, or other subcultures. To achieve meaningful adaptations and to avoid tokenism, these adaptations should be led by those within those communities.
3. Culturally developed treatments that may be informed by some aspects within current evidence-based therapies but frameworks and strategies are grounded in underlying worldviews and paradigms within that culture or subculture. This model is typically seated within services developed for those specific groups, and therapy is delivered by therapists who are members of that community.

We invite papers addressing how to meet the treatment needs of those minoritized groups with eating disorders and related body image difficulties, for whom Eurocentric evidence-based psychological treatments are not a good fit.

In particular, submissions focusing on the following themes are encouraged:
• the limitations and challenges of Eurocentric evidence-based interventions for non-majority cultures
• culturally adapted therapy models and their impact on diverse communities
• indigenous and critical perspectives in treating eating disorders and related body image difficulties
• strategies for effective integration of subcultural knowledge into mainstream therapies
• the role of community-led adaptations in therapeutic practices.

We will consider a range of article types from theoretical or conceptual papers relating to assumptions underlying current approaches or the cultural continuum to empirical papers reporting outcomes of culturally adapted or responsive non-pharmacological interventions. This includes indigenous, queer, critical approaches to eating disorder intervention. We particularly welcome perspectives that have been historically excluded from research and treatment for eating disorders and related body image difficulties.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: cultural responsiveness, individual differences, psychotherapy, indigenous world view, minoritized groups, psychotherapy paradigms, evidence-based, body image, eating disorder

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.