School of Psychology
Deakin University

My name is Jacqueline Woerner and I am currently completing a Doctor of Philosophy in psychology under the supervision of Dr Ross King, senior lecturer, School of Psychology, Deakin University.

I would like to invite you to participate in the third phase of my research project. The aim of this phase of the project is to explore individual views and opinions regarding how ready people feel about changing their eating and weight, as well as how confident they are that if they chose to they could change. In addition, we are also interested in seeing if there is a better way of measuring these constructs, other than what have been previously used.

An earlier study has shown that confidence and readiness to change fluctuate as people recover from anorexia. We are now interested in trying a new way of measuring these changes and seeing what types of factors (such as personal relationships, stage of recovery etc.) may influence these shifts. Therefore, this study is asking people to tell us about their experience with the challenging process of their recovery. We want people to do this in two different ways, to see which one works better.

Participation in this online study is completely voluntary. You are not obliged to participate. If you decide to be involved, you are free to withdraw at no consequence to you.

If you decide that you would like to be involved in this project, your participation will include two parts. Firstly, you will be asked to complete 5 brief, anonymous online questionnaires. It is expected that it will take you approximately 30 minutes to do all 5 questionnaires. You will then be asked to complete the same online questionnaires 2 weeks later. You will be asked to provide a valid email address so that we can send you a reminder 2 weeks after you complete the first questionnaires. However, this information will be coded and stored separately to your questionnaires to ensure that your confidentiality is maintained. The questionnaires will cover the following areas:

• The first questionnaire will ask you to circle one answer for each question. The questions relate to how you currently feel about your eating behaviour and your weight. Examples of questions on the first questionnaire are:

'As far as I am concerned I do not need to gain weight.'
'Sometimes I think that I exaggerate the importance of my body shape or weight in determining my happiness and success.'

• The second questionnaire will also include questions relating to how you currently feel about your eating behaviour and your weight. However, to answer these questions you will be asked to indicate the amount of time which you have felt this way. Examples of questions on the second questionnaire are:

'The following question refers to how you feel about the amount of food which you usually eat each day .'
'The following question refers to the methods you may use to control your weight (such as restricting, excessive exercis, laxatives, vomiting etc.'

• The third questionnaire will include questions about how confident you feel about changing your eating and weight. You will be asked to answer these questions from 0-10:

'I believe that if I chose to I could regularly eat foods which I used to avoid (such as foods high in calories or fat, red meat or dairy products)' 'I believe that if I chose to I could eat 3 standard size meals and a snack each day'

• The fourth questionnaire will also include questions about how confident you feel about changing your eating behaviour and weight. However, to answer these questions you will be asked to indicate the amount of time which you have felt this way. Examples of questions on the fourth questionnaire are:

'How confident are you that if you chose to you could change the shape and weight standards which you may have for evaluating your body?' 'How confident are you that if you chose to you could improve certain characteristics and emotional problems (such as perfectionism, need for control etc.)?

• The last questionnaire will ask for general information about you. Examples of statements on the final questionnaire are:

'Your age is ........years and your height is .......cm'
'The highest level of education that you have currently completed is........'

Your responses on the questionnaires will be completely confidential. On commencing the project you will be given a numeris sode to enable us to later match your two sets of responses, but your name will not be used in any manner on the completed data. Therefore, you will not be able to be identified; your responses will be combined with that of all other participants before it is analysed so that you will not be personally identified in any manner in any reports, the final thesis or any academic publications that may flow from the research. Storage of data collected will adhere to University regulations and be kept in secure storage for a period of six years. Any identifying information will be securely destroyed (by shredding) on the completion of the research project.

Participation in this project is completely voluntary and declining to participate will in no way effect the level of treatment or support offered by professional services or practitioners. If you do decide to participate in this study you are free to withdraw your consent at any time, in which event your participation in the research study will immediately cease any information obtained from you will not be used.

We realise that this topic is a difficult and challenging one for many people. Therefore, some of the questions asked may be hard to deal with. If you are interested in participating but find that some of the cause you to become uncomfortable you are free to withdraw and stop participating at any time. If this happens though, please contact your healthcare clinician these issues raised. If at any stage you do feel distressed you can also contact The Eating Disorders Foundation of Victoria on 1300 550 236 and www.eatingdisorders.org.au or The Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders on (03) 8387 2673 and www.ceed.org.au . These services provide free professional support for people whose lives are affected by eating disorders and the Eating Disorder Foundation of Victoria also offers a crisis telephone service for those who are in immediate need of assistance. Alternatively, contact Dr Ross King on (03) 5227 8481 to request access to these [eople be made on your behalf.

If you have any queries, or for further information please contact my supervisor, Dr Ross King, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Deakin University, on (03) 5227 8481 or myself (Jacqueline Woerner) on (03) 5227 8426 or email jacqueline.woerner@deakin.edu.au . In July, once the results have been collated, they can be made available upon request from Dr Ross King on the above telephone number.

If you do not wish to participate in this project, you may click on the following button to return to the Deakin University homepage: