The Tapping Evidence Base
Weight & Food Cravings

Emotional freedom techniques in the treatment of unhealthy eating behaviors and related psychological constructs in adolescents: A randomized controlled pilot trial

Stapleton, P., Chatwin, H., William, M., Hutton, A., Pain, A., Porter, B. et al. · Explore · 2016

Randomized trial👥 44 participants⚖️ vs. waitlistModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 Australia
In plain English. Forty-four teenagers with unhealthy eating patterns were split into a six-week group tapping program or a waitlist. Improvements in eating habits, self-esteem, and self-compassion showed up not right away but at follow-up, suggesting the benefits took time to unfold. This is an early feasibility trial in a group not often studied - adolescents - so it needs replication with a larger sample.

What they found

44
people took part

A delayed effect was found for both groups at post-intervention, with improved eating habits, self-esteem, and compassion emerging at follow-up.

How the study worked

Who took partadolescent students with unhealthy eating behaviors (n=44)
What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.
Compared withwaitlist
Measured witheating behaviors, self-esteem, compassion, psychological symptoms

💡 Where this could help

If a six-week group tapping program keeps helping teenagers build healthier relationships with food and with themselves, it could mean schools get an early, low-cost way to intervene before disordered eating patterns take deeper hold, reaching kids long before they might ever see a specialist. Once those six weeks are over, the technique belongs to the teenager, not the program — something they can keep using privately, for free, well past graduation.

🔬 What to study next

The delayed-effect pattern here — benefits emerging at follow-up rather than immediately — is worth chasing mechanistically: does a gradual shift in cortisol reactivity to food-related stress, or a slow change in reward-circuit response to food cues, explain why the psychological benefits take time to appear? A larger school-based trial tracking actual eating behavior, not just self-report, alongside biomarkers over a longer follow-up would clarify whether this delayed bloom is a real physiological process settling in or simply students needing time to internalize the skill.

The full record

DesignRandomized trial
Participants44 people
Populationadolescent students with unhealthy eating behaviors
Comparison groupwaitlist
Outcome measureseating behaviors, self-esteem, compassion, psychological symptoms
JournalExplore
Year2016
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
MethodEFT / tapping
Publication typeStudy / trial
Verification✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Stapleton, P., Chatwin, H., William, M., Hutton, A., Pain, A., Porter, B., & Sheldon, T. (2016). Emotional freedom techniques in the treatment of unhealthy eating behaviors and related psychological constructs in adolescents: A randomized controlled pilot trial. Explore. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2015.12.001

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on Weight & Food Cravings

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THE TAPPING EVIDENCE BASE Weight & Food Cravings 44 participants WHAT THEY FOUND A delayed effect was found for both groupsat post-intervention, with improved eatinghabits, self-esteem, and… Randomized trial · 44 participants Stapleton · 2016 · evidence.thetappingsolution.com