Improving body image among Colombian adolescents: Findings from a pilot trial

School-based body image interventions are cost-effective ways to improve body esteem and media literacy in adolescents, yet they have rarely been adapted to Global South contexts. We piloted a culturally adapted body image intervention with 341 adolescents (239 girls, Mean age = 14.11, SD = 1.48, range 11 – 17) from seven schools in a low-income urban area of Northern Colombia. The intervention was delivered by trained facilitators, comprised 4 sessions (45 minutes each), and included media literacy, awareness of appearance pressures, strategies to reduce social comparisons, and guidance on avoiding appearance-based comments. Participants filled out questionnaires measuring their body satisfaction, media literacy and comparison tendencies before, after the intervention, and 4 months later. They further provided qualitative and quantitative feedback after post-test and were invited to participate in focus group discussions to provide feedback about the intervention (N = 32, 21 girls). The intervention demonstrated excellent acceptability, feasibility and significantly improved participant’s media literacy, as well as girls’ body satisfaction and comparison tendencies. These effects were maintained at 4-months follow-up. Findings indicate that the intervention is ready for rigorous testing, with promise for scalable, low-cost implementation across school settings. Suggestions are made to improve planning and intervention content for a fully powered randomized controlled trial.