BackgroundFamilies have faced unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased maternal mental health problems and barriers to accessing care. Innovative programs are needed to support both maternal mental health and parenting, and to buffer the long-term impacts of stress on young children. Using a patient-oriented approach, our research team aimed to co-develop and pilot test an App-based psychoeducation and social-connection platform: Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM).MethodsThe co-development process involved a parent advisory board from conceptualization and design, through to direct participation in the program delivery. The BEAM program includes weekly videos and activities based on Unified Protocol therapy modules and emotion-focused parenting strategies, a weekly telehealth group review session, and access to a private online forum for support from other mothers and clinical coaches. A parallel randomized control trial was conducted across two provinces in Canada. Mothers of preschool children (aged 18–36 months old), with moderate-to-severe depression (Patient Health Questionaire-9 ≥ 10), were recruited online and randomized to either the 10-week BEAM intervention or treatment as usual (TAU) control group. Online surveys (ensuring researcher blinding) included questions about feasibility and acceptability of the program and pre/post self-report measures of mental health, parenting, positive coping and child behavior outcomes. The primary outcome measures were symptoms of depression and parenting stress. Data were analyzed using mixed models and an intention-to-treat approach.Results65 participants were randomized, by an online allocation tool, to the BEAM (n = 33) and TAU (n = 32) groups. Engagement was relatively high at the beginning of the program, with 78.8% starting the BEAM App and 70.6% attending ≥1 telehealth session. Most respondents felt socially supported, satisfied with the App, and found it easy to use. Pre-post results indicated interaction effects with greater reductions in overall mental health problems, and specifically anxiety and sleep symptoms, among BEAM vs. control participants. There were also time effects with reductions in depression symptoms across both groups. No significant treatment effects emerged for the other mental health symptoms, parenting problems, positive coping, or child behavior outcomes. Descriptive data are included to highlight possible areas of promise for future large efficacy trials. Technological difficulties and other challenges that may have led to attrition and impacted outcomes are discussed. There were no adverse events related to study participation.ConclusionsThe BEAM program has promise as a novel, feasible and acceptable intervention for improving mental health among mothers of young children.Clinical Trial Registration[www.ClinicalTrials.gov], identifier [NCT04772677].
Self-compassion predicts mothers’ engagement in health behaviours yet some mothers fear self-compassion. We examined relationships between both self-compassion and fear of self-compassion with mothers’ reactions to prioritizing health behaviours. Mothers rated their self-compassion, fear of self-compassion, read a scenario about prioritizing health behaviours and rated adjectives describing themselves if they behaved as described in the scenario. Self-compassion was positively related to positive reactions to engaging in health behaviours in the midst of motherhood. Fear of self-compassion led to negative reactions. This research provides insight into why some mothers feel better about incorporating health behaviours into their lives than others.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, new parents were disproportionately affected by public health restrictions changing service accessibility and increasing stressors. However, minimal research has examined pandemic-related stressors and experiences of perinatal fathers in naturalistic anonymous settings. An important and novel way parents seek connection and information is through online forums, which increased during COVID-19. The current study qualitatively analyzed the experiences of perinatal fathers from September to December 2020 through the Framework Analytic Approach to identify unmet support needs during COVID-19 using the online forum predaddit on reddit. Five main themes in the thematic framework included forum use, COVID-19, psychosocial distress, family functioning, and child health and development, each with related subthemes. Findings highlight the utility of predaddit as a source of information for, and interactions of, fathers to inform mental health services. Overall, fathers used the forum to engage with other fathers during a time of social isolation and for support during the transition to parenthood. This manuscript highlights the unmet support needs of fathers during the perinatal period and the importance of including fathers in perinatal care, implementing routine perinatal mood screening for both parents, and developing programs to support fathers during this transition to promote family wellbeing.
Families have faced unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased maternal mental health problems and barriers to accessing care. Innovative programs are needed to support both maternal mental health and parenting, and to buffer the long-term impacts of stress on young children. Using a patient-oriented approach, our research team co-developed and pilot tested an App-based psychoeducation and social-connection platform: Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM). The co-development process involved a parent advisory board from conceptualization and design, through to direct participation in the program delivery. The BEAM program includes weekly videos and activities based on Unified Protocol therapy modules and emotion-focused parenting strategies, a weekly telehealth group review session, and access to a private online forum for support from other mothers and clinical coaches. A pilot randomized control trial was conducted across two provinces in Canada. 65 mothers of preschool children (aged 18-36 months old), with moderate-to-severe depression (Patient Health Questionaire-9≥10), were allocated to either the 10-week BEAM intervention (n=33) or treatment as usual control (n=32) groups. Participants completed questions about feasibility and acceptability of the program and pre/post self-report measures of mental health, parenting, positive coping and child behavior outcomes. Engagement was relatively high at the beginning of the program, with 78.8% starting the BEAM App and 70.6% attending ≥1 telehealth session. Most respondents felt socially supported, satisfied with the App, and found it easy to use. Data were analysed using mixed models and an intention-to-treat approach. Pre-post results indicated interaction effects with greater reductions in overall mental health problems and specific anxiety and sleep symptoms among BEAM versus control participants, as well as time effects with reductions in depression symptoms across both groups. No significant treatment effects emerged for the other mental health symptoms, parenting problems, positive coping, or child behaviour outcomes. Descriptive data are included to highlight possible areas of promise for future large efficacy trials. Technological difficulties and other challenges that may have led to attrition and impacted outcomes are discussed. The BEAM program has promise as a novel, feasible and acceptable intervention for improving mental health among mothers of young children.
Background: The prevalence of maternal depression and anxiety has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and pregnant individuals are experiencing concerningly elevated levels of mental health symptoms worldwide. Many individuals may now be at heightened risk of postpartum mental health disorders. Recent evidence suggests that the cognitive development of children born during the pandemic has been impacted. There are significant concerns that a cohort of children may be at-risk for impaired self-regulation and mental illness due to elevated exposure to perinatal maternal mental illness. The intergenerational effects of maternal mental illness are most pronounced when depression persists. With both an increased prevalence of depression and limited availability of services due to the pandemic, there is an urgent need for accessible eHealth interventions for mothers of young children. The aims of this trial are to evaluate the efficacy of the Building Emotion Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM) app-based program for reducing maternal depression symptoms (primary outcome) as well as for improving anxiety symptoms, family relationships, parenting, mother and child functioning (secondary outcomes) compared to treatment as usual (TAU). Methods: A two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) with repeated measures will be used to evalute the efficacy of the BEAM intervention compared to TAU among a sample of 140 mothers with children aged 18 to 36 months, who self-report moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. Individuals will be recruited online and those randomized to the treatment group will participate in 10 weeks of modules on mental health and parenting, an online social support forum, and weekly group teletherapy sessions. Assessment of depression (primary outcome), family relationship quality, anxiety, parenting, and mother and child functioning will occur at 18-36 months postpartum (pre-test, T1), immediately after the last week of the BEAM intervention (post-test, T2), and at 3 months after the intervention (follow-up, T3). Primary outcomes will also be assessed weekly throughout the 10 week intervention. Discussion: eHealth interventions have the potential to address elevated maternal mental health symptoms, parenting stress, and child funtioning concerns during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and provide accessible programming to mothers who are in need of support. This RCT will build on an open pilot trial of the BEAM program and provide further evaluation of this evidence-based intervention for mothers experiencing depression. Findings will increase understanding of depression and parenting stress in mothers with young children and reveal the potential for long-term improvements in maternal and child health and family well-being.
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