The investigation of Cognitive - Behavioral Therapy influencem based on Cash's Eight stage model on negative body image of female college students

The present study was carried out to examine the effects of cognitive – behavioral therapy based on Cash`s eight stages model on negative body image amongst female colelge students. In the first stage, Multidimensional Body-Self Relation Questionnaire (MBSRQ) was administered to 226 female students of Shahed University. The results of this stage revealed that 38 students have negative body image. Of these 38 subjects, 16 were selected randomly and were randomly allocated to control (8 subjects) and experimental (8 subjects) groups. After 8 sessions of treatment, the MBSRQ was administered to these 16 subjects. The results of Uman Vitni nonparametric test, support the effectiveness of intervention; more specifically, negative body image significantly improved for treatment (experimental) group. When the two study groups were compared, using 6 individual subscales of the MBSRQ (i.e. Appearance Evaluation, Fitness Orientation, Body Areas Satisfaction, Appearance Orientation, Fitness Evaluation and Subjective Weight) significant differences emerged only for the first 2 subscales. In sum, cognitive – behavioral therapy with Cash`s 8 stages model has been found to be effective in improvement of negative body image among a sample of Iranian university females.