215 - Effects of a Social Media-Based Parenting Program for Mothers with Postpartum Depressive Symptoms on Child Developmental Outcomes

Publication Number: 4212.215

James Guevara, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Rhonda Boyd, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Ellie Marino, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Laura M. Betancourt, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Bingqing Zhang, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Knashawn H. Morales, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; David S. Mandell, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is common among new mothers and increases the risk for dysfunctional parenting and child developmental delays.

Objective: We tested the effects of a novel social media-based parenting program for mothers with PPD symptoms on feasibility, acceptability, and child developmental outcomes.

Design/Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial. Mothers of infants < 8 months old with mild/moderate PPD symptoms were enrolled from 6 urban primary care pediatric practices and randomized to an 8-week parenting program delivered via Facebook with online depression treatment (FBOD) or online depression (OD) treatment alone. Mothers completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at enrollment. We assessed program acceptability using a 5-point likert-scaled question for each weekly program topic and feasibility using weekly program views and posts. Infants completed the Bayley-4 Scales of Infant Development (BSID) 6-9 months following enrollment. Intention-to-treat multivariate linear regression was used to assess differences in BSID scores between groups at follow-up.

Results: 94 mother-infant dyads were enrolled and randomized (46 FBOD vs. 48 OD). At baseline, mothers were similar between groups and had mild depressive symptoms at baseline (mean EPDS 13.3) (table 1). Infants were also similar between groups at baseline and were mean age of 4.6 months old. While all FBOD participants completed the program, only 79 (84%) infants completed the BSID at 12 months of age. In the intervention group, average program views were high (96%), but average program posts were moderate (50%). 36 (82%) reported that the program was highly or very highly acceptable. There were no differences in BSID subscale scores between groups (table 2) at follow-up.

Conclusion(s): A virtual parenting program for new mothers with PPD was feasible and acceptable with moderate to high engagement. There was no effect of the program on child development scores at 1 year of age. Assessment of longer-term developmental outcomes may be needed to fully assess the impact of the program.

Table 1
Characteristics of Study Participants

Table 2
Bayley Subscale Scores by Study Arm