Impact of the Great Body Shop on Student Health Risks: A Partial Replication of the Robinson (1999) Analysis of the Minnesota Student Survey

The purpose of this study was to replicate, as much as possible, the analysis completed by Dr. David Robinson for the Great Body Shop (GBS) in 1999. This involved a reanalysis of Minnesota Student Survey (MSS) data from 1995 and 1998. The 1995 data set was limited to districts that had implemented the Great Body Shop curricula for at least two years (n = 911). To create a comparison group, a 2% random sample was drawn from students who had not been exposed to the GBS (n = 885). Thus, the effective sample size for the 1995 analysis consisted of 1,796 students. For the 1998 data set, there were 7,230 (13.8%) students from districts implementing GBS curricula. Again, because the potential comparison group was so much larger than the treatment group, a 15% random sample of students from non-GBS districts was drawn for comparison (n = 7,206). We performed an Analysis of Covariance, with the scales reported by Robinson (1999) and calculated by us. The independent variable was GBS Exposure. On the whole, results suggest that the GBS curriculum had a significant positive impact on students exposed to the material. Students experiencing the GBS curricula reported significantly higher self esteem and better school environments. Further, results from the 1998 data set suggest that exposure over time increases the level of impact students experienced from instruction using these curricula.