The study I reviewed established the relationship between individuals with eating disorders and motivational text message treatment. Alternating treatment design was utilized in two-fold. One was to establish relationship between consequent text messages and motivational interview. Secondly, it was used to determine the influence of motivational change in individuals on eating behaviors. The study utilized the cognitive behavior therapy to test the subject within a period of 8 weeks.
Results of the study indicated that the intervention was successful, especially within respect to monetary rewards. The mean rating showed 7 out of 10 and the daily monitoring compliance was at 91%. Evidently, text messages were shown not to influence the behavioral changes involving kilocalorie intake and dietary limitation. The Readiness Motivation Questionnaire (RMQ) was used to gauge the alterations on dietary restraint. It was reported that when text messages were received, the RMQ scale (desire to restrict) was rising due to improved motivation in the subjects. However, the action scores (the longing for reducing dietary limitations) were also rising, and indication that the subjects were also motivated. The weight of the subjects was a motivating factor towards these results. The results indicate that text messages can be a good treatment, acceptable and feasible, and could be operational in the positive motivational changes for moderate weight persons. The effect on underweight individuals is however, difficult to predict.
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On analyzing internal validity, it is evident that the study could be subject to other variables beyond motivation and weight. Motivation, was used as a confounding variable which weight is the extraneous variable, which could influence the outcome of the experiment in diverse ways. It appears that if the study used average weighted subjects, then all the responses could be successfully obtained. This application could have made it a more reliable experiment. The internal validity of this article, therefore can be termed as fair.
References
Shingleton, R. M., Pratt, E. M., Gorman, B., Barlow, D. H., Palfai, T. P. & Thompson-Brenner, H. (2016). Motivational Text Message Intervention for Eating Disorders: A Single-Case Alternating Treatment Design Using Ecological Momentary Assessment. Behavior Therapy, 47 (3), 325-338, DOI: 10.1016/j.beth.2016.01.005
