Developing Transdiagnostic Single-Session Interventions for University Students Experiencing Disordered Eating: A Mixed-Method Co-Design Study.

Eating disorders (ED) are severe psychiatric conditions associated with profound physical and psychological complications, functional impairments, and reduced quality of life (Attia and Walsh ). Among these disorders, anorexia nervosa is characterized by persistent restriction of energy intake leading to significantly low weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, and either a disturbance in body image or a persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current underweight status (American Psychiatric Association ). Low body weight results primarily from dietary restriction and excessive physical activity, though some individuals also experience binge eating accompanied by compensatory behaviors. Anorexia nervosa comprises two subtypes: restrictive type and binge‐eating/purging type (American Psychiatric Association ). The prognosis remains poor, with fewer than half achieving full recovery and many experiencing relapse or chronicity (Solmi et al. ). Weight restoration and nutritional rehabilitation are essential for reducing immediate health risks but represent only one dimension of anorexia nervosa recovery (Kenny et al. ; Kenny and Lewis ). Recovery is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional process involving physical, behavioral, and cognitive adjustments extending beyond symptom remission (Bardone‐Cone et al. , ). Physical recovery may occur before psychological recovery, creating vulnerabilities as individuals can appear medically stable despite ongoing cognitive difficulties (Bardone‐Cone et al. ). Recovery is further complicated by stigma, shame, financial constraints, and restricted access to specialized services (Kazdin et al. ), often leaving individuals with insufficient professional support and increasing reliance on alternative guidance sources. In this context, social media platforms have become important spaces for sharing recovery experiences and seeking peer support (Park et al. ). While research documents potential harms—including pro‐ED content exposure, thin ideal glorification, and triggering comparisons (Borzekowski et al. ; Feldhege et al. ; Sidani et al. )—these platforms also offer benefits. Pseudonymous, peer‐driven communities such as Reddit provide access to spontaneous, unsolicited accounts that can reveal experiential aspects of ED recovery that are often underexplored in researcher‐directed studies (Bohrer et al. ; Hower et al. ; Kenny et al. ). Previous studies drawing on online material related to ED recovery have primarily focused on overarching recovery narratives and psychosocial dimensions; however, important experiential dimensions may remain underexplored.