Social Media-Based Parenting Program for Women With Postpartum Depressive Symptoms

Postpartum depression (PPD) symptoms are common among women following the birth of a child and can adversely impact a mother's ability to care for her child. As a result, infants of mothers with PPD symptoms may experience less responsive parenting, placing them at greater risk for delays in development. Evidence- based parenting programs have been developed to guide mothers with caring for their infants but may not address the impact of depression on parenting, are intensive and expensive to administer with limited ability for scale up, or are not available in a format that facilitates participation by women with depressive symptoms. To address these barriers, we developed a theoretically-driven social media-based parenting program on responsive parenting and child development.

To determine whether the social media-based parenting program can improve responsive parenting among women with PPD symptoms, we will conduct a prospective individually randomized group treatment trial. 75 eligible women who screen positive for PPD at their infants' well child visit and their children will be consented, enrolled, and randomized as mother-child dyads 1:1 to receive a) the social media-based parenting program plus online depression treatment or b) online depression treatment alone. We chose a randomized design, because it is most effective in guarding against bias and will ensure that patients in both arms are similar in observed and unobserved characteristics. Treatment assignment will be done at the time of enrollment following informed consent.

Descriptive statistics for demographic and poverty characteristics and PPD symptoms measured at baseline will be examined across the two treatment groups to assess the success of the randomization. We will assess responsive parenting at baseline and 3 months post-enrollment. Secondary outcomes, including changes in EPDS, BDI-II PSOC, and PSI-SF scores measured between baseline and the 3-month follow-up between groups, will be explored to determine if the effects of the parenting program are consistent with preliminary pilot findings. The intervention arm will also be assessed with the Therapeutic Factors Inventory-8 (TFI-8) to measure cohesion and the Acceptability survey which measures feasibility of the parenting program at 3-months post-enrollment. Additionally, at the 3-month mark, all participants will be administered the MoodGym Acceptability Survey to assess feasibility of the online depression treatment program.

The results of this application would be expected to contribute important new knowledge and inform a future trial on parenting strategies to better assist mothers with PPD symptoms and improve child developmental outcomes.