ABSTRACT
For all of the debates within the field of the prevention of eating problems, there is one thing on which we all agree: Prior to designing and implementing a prevention program, you must identify a clear goal. Whose behaviors or attitudes are you trying to change? What, specifically, are the behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs that you are ultimately aiming to affect? And what are the environmental (ecological) variables and mediating psychological processes that you plan to influence in order to achieve the desired prevention effects? Various issues raised in chapter 1 (What is prevention?), chapter 2 (What are we trying to prevent?), chapters 9 and 13 (What types of prevention work best?), and chapter 11 (How does one design a good prevention outcome study?) bring us back to the fact that the first step in developing a prevention program is to delineate target behaviors, key risk and resilience factors, and a target audience.
