ScreenED: Screening for Eating Disorders in Children
About this study
he ScreenED project aims to develop a brief, high-quality screening tool to detect eating disorders in primary school aged children (i.e., 5-12 years). We want to create a tool that: Can be quickly and easily completed by children and their parents Will be used by busy health professionals for picking up eating disorders soon after they begin Uses clear, non-stigmatising, age-appropriate, gender-neutral, and culturally safe language Assesses risk for a wide range of eating disorders Taps early symptoms reported by those with lived experience or their parents, and Is freely available to the public
Research TeamProject Supervisor: Dr. Laura Hart lhart@unimelb.edu.au Additional Researchers: Dr. Lyza Norton lyza.norton@unimelb.edu.au Ms Simone Baillie simone.baillie@unimelb.edu.au Professor Tracey Wade tracey.wade@flinders.edu.au Dr. Jamie-Lee Pennesi jamie-lee.p
InstitutionMelbourne University
Funding SourceThis project is funded by an Australian Government Medical Research Future Fund Mental Health Research mission grant awarded to Hart (APPID: 2026538, 2023-2024). Hart is partially supported by a VESKI Victorian Government Research Grant (2023-2023).
Project Start Date1 January 2024
Project End Date24 March 2025
ParticipantsWe are inviting:
- Young people with a lived experience of an eating disorder during childhood (when they were aged 5-12 years)
- Parents with experience caring for a child who has or had an eating disorder between the ages of 5 – 12 years.
- Families with at least one parent and one young person with an experience of an eating disorder during childhood (5-12 years)
To be eligible to participate in this research, young people with lived experience need to:
- Have a lived experience of an eating disorder during their primary school years (aged 5 – 12).
- Be aged between 16 – 25 years and have English language fluency sufficient for focus group participation.
- Consider themselves recovered or well enough to participate.
- For those aged under 18 years, we will also require a parent/guardian to consent to your participation. When you complete the enrolment survey, you will be asked to provide an email or phone number for a parent/guardian who can be contacted by the research team.
To be eligible to participate in this research, parents with caring experience need to:
- Be over 18 years of age and have English language fluency sufficient for focus group participation and questionnaire completion.
- Have experience caring for a child (aged 5 – 12 years) with an eating disorder.
- If you have a child with lived experience of an eating disorder (between ages 5-12) who is interested in participating, you may nominate them when you complete the enrolment survey, and they will be contacted by the research team.
- Young people with a lived experience of an eating disorder during childhood (when they were aged 5-12 years)
- Parents with experience caring for a child who has or had an eating disorder between the ages of 5 – 12 years.
- Families with at least one parent and one young person with an experience of an eating disorder during childhood (5-12 years)
To be eligible to participate in this research, young people with lived experience need to:
- Have a lived experience of an eating disorder during their primary school years (aged 5 – 12).
- Be aged between 16 – 25 years and have English language fluency sufficient for focus group participation.
- Consider themselves recovered or well enough to participate.
- For those aged under 18 years, we will also require a parent/guardian to consent to your participation. When you complete the enrolment survey, you will be asked to provide an email or phone number for a parent/guardian who can be contacted by the research team.
To be eligible to participate in this research, parents with caring experience need to:
- Be over 18 years of age and have English language fluency sufficient for focus group participation and questionnaire completion.
- Have experience caring for a child (aged 5 – 12 years) with an eating disorder.
- If you have a child with lived experience of an eating disorder (between ages 5-12) who is interested in participating, you may nominate them when you complete the enrolment survey, and they will be contacted by the research team.
What is InvolvedParticipation in this research involves three parts:
Completing a short online enrolment survey (approximately 5-10 minutes) to tell us a little about yourself and your availability to join a co-design workshop.
Filling in a brief pre-workshop form to help you prepare for our co-design workshop.
Attending one 60-minute online workshop (via Zoom videoconferencing).
The total time commitment for this study is expected to be no more than 2-hours.
You will be remunerated with a $100 online shopping voucher for your time. At the conclusion of the co-design workshop, you will be emailed a link to an electronic voucher. For those aged under 18 years, this link will be emailed to the address provided by a parent/guardian.
What will the co-design workshops involve?
The purpose of the co-design workshop is to:
Collect information about participants’ experiences of early warning signs and symptoms of eating disorders in childhood.
Get feedback on which signs and symptoms are important to include in the ScreenED tool.
Collect feedback on the language used in draft items to make sure they are clear, non-stigmatising, and gender-neutral.
Workshops will involve small groups (of around 4 – 6 participants) and will include either parents-only, young people only, or families (with at least one parent and one young person participating together). Parents and young people who are not known to each other will not be asked to participate in the same workshop.
An experienced facilitator will run the workshop sessions. This will involve asking participants about the early warning signs and symptoms of an eating disorder that they experienced during childhood and discussing wordclouds generated from the pre-workshop online form. Participants will then discuss drafted items that might be included in the screening tool and provide feedback on how items can be improved.
A research assistant will also be present at the workshop to help record themes and discussions that emerge among the group of participants. Online workshops will be audio recorded via the zoom platform for later qualitative analysis of discussion content. No individual participants will be identified when analysing workshop discussions.
Completing a short online enrolment survey (approximately 5-10 minutes) to tell us a little about yourself and your availability to join a co-design workshop.
Filling in a brief pre-workshop form to help you prepare for our co-design workshop.
Attending one 60-minute online workshop (via Zoom videoconferencing).
The total time commitment for this study is expected to be no more than 2-hours.
You will be remunerated with a $100 online shopping voucher for your time. At the conclusion of the co-design workshop, you will be emailed a link to an electronic voucher. For those aged under 18 years, this link will be emailed to the address provided by a parent/guardian.
What will the co-design workshops involve?
The purpose of the co-design workshop is to:
Collect information about participants’ experiences of early warning signs and symptoms of eating disorders in childhood.
Get feedback on which signs and symptoms are important to include in the ScreenED tool.
Collect feedback on the language used in draft items to make sure they are clear, non-stigmatising, and gender-neutral.
Workshops will involve small groups (of around 4 – 6 participants) and will include either parents-only, young people only, or families (with at least one parent and one young person participating together). Parents and young people who are not known to each other will not be asked to participate in the same workshop.
An experienced facilitator will run the workshop sessions. This will involve asking participants about the early warning signs and symptoms of an eating disorder that they experienced during childhood and discussing wordclouds generated from the pre-workshop online form. Participants will then discuss drafted items that might be included in the screening tool and provide feedback on how items can be improved.
A research assistant will also be present at the workshop to help record themes and discussions that emerge among the group of participants. Online workshops will be audio recorded via the zoom platform for later qualitative analysis of discussion content. No individual participants will be identified when analysing workshop discussions.
LocationMelbourne
Contact Details
screened-project@unimelb.edu.au