The Impact of a Podcast-based Body Image Intervention Among Millennial Women

Change in appearance esteem as measured by the Appearance subscale of the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA)

The Appearance subscale of the BESAA (Mendelson et al., 2001) contains 10 items, which assess self-evaluations of one's overall appearance using a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always). Six items are reverse scored and scores for each item are averaged with higher scores indicating higher appearance esteem.

Change in internalisation of appearance ideals as measured by the Internalisation of appearance ideals subscale of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-3)

An adapted five-item version of the SATAQ-3 subscale (Thompson et al., 2004; Mahon et al., 2025) assesses the extent to which appearance ideals are internalised. Participants respond to each of the five statements from 1 (Definitely disagree) to 5 (Definitely agree). Item scores are averaged with higher scores indicating greater internalisation of appearance ideals.

Change in self-objectification as measured by the Likert version of the Self-Objectification Questionnaire (LSOQ)

The LSOQ (Wollast et al., 2021) is comprised of 10 items describing different body attributes; five items constitute the appearance subscale and five items constitute the competence subscale. Participants indicate how important each of the items are in relation to how they feel about their body using a scale from 1 (low importance) to 11 (high importance). The items for each subscale are averaged. A higher appearance subscale score in comparison to the competence subscale score indicate greater self-objectification.

Change in weight esteem as measured by the Weight subscale of the BESAA

The Weight subscale of the BESAA (Mendelson et al., 2001) consists of eight items, which assess self-evaluations of one's weight using a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always). Three items are reverse scored and scores for each item are averaged with higher scores indicating higher weight esteem.

Change in state body satisfaction as measured by a one-item visual analogue scale

A visual analogue scale (VAS) (Heinberg \& Thompson, 1995) will assess participants' state body satisfaction using a single item (i.e, "How satisfied do you feel about your appearance, right now?"). Participants will indicate their mood on a 101-point VAS (0 = completely dissatisfied - 100 = completely satisfied) with higher scores indicating greater body satisfaction.

Total acceptability of the intervention

All participants will answer the same five acceptability questions. Participants in Arm A (podcast and journal) will answer an additional two questions related to the journal. The five questions relate to their enjoyment in listening to the podcast; relatability of the podcast content; likeability of the podcast host; likeability of the podcast guest; and likelihood of recommending the podcast. The two additional questions for Arm A participants relate to their enjoyment in completing the journal and the likelihood of recommending the journal. Responses for all acceptability questions are on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much).

Total engagement in the intervention

Participants will be asked five multiple-choice manipulation checks to gauge their level of podcast engagement. Each manipulation check asks a simple question based on content shared in the podcast and provides five possible responses: one response is correct, three responses are incorrect, one response is "I don't know". Responses will be categorised as follows for each arm: * 0-1 correct=low pod engagement; * 2-3 correct=medium pod engagement; * 4-5 correct=high pod engagement. Journal engagement will be determined by the amount of time spent engaging with the journal based on time stamps: * 0-60 secs=no journal engagement; * 1-4 mins=low journal engagement; * 5-8 mins=medium journal engagement; * 9 mins+=high journal engagement. Total engagement for Arm A (podcast + journal) will be as follows: * high pod engagement + high journal engagement=high engagement; * low pod engagement + low journal engagement=low engagement; * any other combination=medium engagement.