Slide 1 (opening): Hello everyone, my name is Samantha Cannata, thank you

for joining me for my presentation on my research proposal today. The research

proposal that I will describe is a comparison of the treatment outcomes between
family and individual based therapeutic approaches for adolescents in recovery
for an eating disorder.

Slide 2 (purpose and lit review): Eating Disorders are a complex psychological
disorder that impairs an individual’s functionality in nuanced ways that are are
unique to the individual. A variety of therapeutic modalities have been suggested
to support recovery for an individual with an eating disorder, most notably being
cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, in an individual format. However, Kells and
colleagues 2025 used a meta-analysis of ED content, including treatment
experiences, on the social media platform TikTok, and found that there is a lack
of awareness towards the ways that eating disorder recovery can impact
relationship dynamics, such as family, friends, and coworkers. This study’s goal
is to better understand family-based and individual therapy through comparison
of treatment outcomes for adolescents in eating disorder recovery

Slide 3 (lit review cont): The prevalence of eating disorders among the general
population has sparked emerging research that showcases the high mortality
rates that are associated. Individuals with an ED among the general population
hold a mortality risk that is twice as great as the general population, with a nearly
six times greater rate for individuals specifically with anorexia nervosa. These
concerning statistics highlight the necessity to explore the most effective
interventions and how to adequately implement them into treatment to ultimately
aid those who are suffering from an ED. Additionally, Ward and others 2019
found that initial onset of an ED is generally during young adulthood. With
parents having access to knowledge such as these high mortality risk rates and
knowing their child has an ED, it makes sense that a parent would want to be
involved within treatment to ensure recovery is progressing.

Slide 4 (lit review cont): There is some existing literature on the topic of family
interventions with eating disorder treatment. A study by Rosello and colleagues
2021 found that parent intervention was associated with weight gain and an
improvement in eating disorder psychopathology, which is a promising start to
understanding the differences between family and individual based therapies. In
addition to this finding, it was established that parent's knowledge of eating
disorders begins to increase throughout treatment, which positively influences
the parents’ ability to engage in therapy alongside their child.

Slide 5 (research question): This topic is crucial to be discussed because of the

high mortality rate, as previously discussed, for individuals with eating disorders,
especially during the sensitive period of adolescence. So, for this study, the
hypothesis is that the treatment group that receives family-based therapy will
have a greater improvement in ED treatment outcomes over the treatment group
that receives individual therapy. The null hypothesis is that there will be no
statistical differences between the two treatment group scores after the 12-week
period.

Slide 6 (study design): This will be a quasi-experimental study design due to

the fact that the nature of these variables, particularly the independent variable,
would not allow for random assignment to the treatment conditions. A quasi-
experimental design also allows to measure a quantitative change over time
within groups by using a pretest/posttest format, measuring the scores on the
Eating Disorder Questionnaire (EDE-Q) before and after a 12-week intervention
period. Sessions will be weekly in one hour duration. Additionally, in the chosen
population of outpatient eating disorder treatment, patients are assigned to
family-based or individual therapy based on therapist recommendation,
scheduling, family availability, and clinical need. So, convenience sampling must
be used to ethically perform this study. The independent variable being used is
the type of therapeutic approach. Individual therapy will use the approach known
as cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, and family-based therapy will use the
approach called multidimensional family therapy, or MDFT. The dependent
variable is the score outcomes being measured by the EDE-Q to compare
treatment groups.

Slide 7 (integration): Eating disorders are multidimensional and unique to each

person. The role of the parent-child relationship may or may not play an integral
role to the adolescent in recovery. However, those with Christian values hold the
belief that family can provide an asset of support and love in times of hardship.
As written in Scripture in Psalm 103:13, “As a father has compassion on his
children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, from New
International Version, 2011. This verse acknowledges the gentle care within the
parent-child bond, and how compassion can be the basis of healing in times that
are challenging.

Response 1:
Hi Naemah. First, I want to state that your research idea is creative. With the rise
of Telehealth during the covid pandemic, it is imperative to keep exploring the
different ways that the counseling process is affected by the use of a digital
format. I find it interesting that the majority of your literature honed in on the fact
that Telehealth has had mostly advantageous effects for the mental health field.
Although there are a wide variety of research areas that highlight the efficacy of
Telehealth, it may be worth exploring any previous research that denotes the
challenges that virtual services bring over in person services. I was curious
towards whether Telehealth practices have been researched in my chosen
research topic on the treatment of adolescents with eating disorders. It was found
by Gorrell and colleagues in 2022 that various studies have found conflicting
results on the efficacy of telehealth for this population, with some adolescents
reporting either no change or little change in a positive way in the therapeutic
alliance, or the therapeutic alliance worsened in a digital format. This is
interesting because it seems like most populations that use Telehealth do
experience advantages in accessibility, but the strength of the therapeutic
relationship is also a determining factor in the success of therapy treatment,
which is greatly inhibited through the virtual platforms. Moving onto your gap
statement, I thought that the literature you provided was strong to support this
research gap. I’m interested in whether the fact that you described in this portion
of the presentation in that co occurring conditions increase dropout risk, if that
was supported by a researcher or study to make this gap stronger. But besides
that statement, I think you did a nice job at capturing exactly what you are
examining in this study. I think that having three research questions and three
hypotheses is intricate, but also very interesting. The connections between
engagement, attendance, and retention, and counseling modality are complex
and it is interesting to see how these variables are affected in the chosen
population of co occurring anxiety and substance abuse disorders in adults
through a telehealth format. Additionally, the variables of your study design are
well thought out. Using the electronic health records is a good way to also keep
information confidential and anonymous for participant privacy. For your topic,
the cultural considerations you described were also very relevant towards the
outcomes of your study. `

Gorrell, S., Reilly, E. E., Brosof, L., & Le Grange, D. (2022). Use of telehealth in
the management of adolescent eating disorders: patient perspectives and future
directions suggested from the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescent Health, Medicine
and Therapeutics, 45-53. [Link]

Response 2:

Hi Lindsay, thank you for sharing your research proposal about the impact of
smartphone use on adolescents’ mental health. This topic really is crucial to be
explored due to the fact that technology has become much more widespread in
the last couple of decades, with teenagers and even younger adolescents
gaining access to devices such as smartphones and social media platforms such
as Instagram and Snapchat at earlier and earlier ages. Even some children's
games on smartphones such as roblox have been scrutinized over a lack of
security and safety features, particularly in the chat settings where kids can chat
message almost anybody in the world. I also think it is a strength of your study to
be examining this subject from a post-covid lens. The coronavirus increased our
reliance on smartphones for social connection, but this type of social connection
instead of traditional in person connection may actually have adverse effects on
mental health. In terms of your study design, it was pretty solid. By using the
objective measures of amount of screentime, number of phone pick ups, duration
of time spent on social media, and number of notifications, it should be simple to
conduct a statistical analysis and determine emerging patterns that result from
overall increased smartphone use in adolescence. Your hypothesis and null
hypothesis make sense and I would agree with these predictions. Using the
descriptive field correlational design is a great way to assess natural world
environment settings in order to capture a realistic picture of the relationship
between smartphone use and mental health symptoms. However, it may be
easier to separate your variables into two different research questions. For
example, how does the use of smartphones influence adolescent mental health
and how does the use of social media influence adolescent mental health. By
separating these variables, it may be easier to interpret your results. The
integration of your study into the counseling field is especially pertinent to
counselors who have been in the field much longer, and may not be up to date
with the latest technology trends or adolescent internet uses. Finally, I
appreciated your biblical integration very much. It’s true that excessive
smartphone use, like the excess of most things in our lives, is not good for our
well-beings, especially at the vulnerable period of adolescence. Thank you for
sharing today Lindsay, and have a blessed day