Participant Experiences of the Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health Intervention: A Qualitative Program Evaluation

• In Event: Emerging Research on Maternal Mental Health

Abstract

Rates of depression have rapidly increased in mothers with young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meta-analyses reveal 25-30% of mothers are experiencing clinically significant depressive symptoms (Tomfohr-Madsen et al., 2021) resulting in approximately 3-times the number of infants being exposed to maternal depression, compared to pre-pandemic rates. Child exposure to maternal depression poses high risk for child developmental and mental health concerns and is particularly concerning for young children as the first three years of life are a critical period for healthy development (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999; Sohr-Preston & Scaramella, 2006). Maternal depression can negatively impact mother-child interactions (Farmer & Lee, 2011), decrease maternal sensitivity (Bernard et al., 2018) and increase disengaged parenting behaviours (Lovejoy et al., 2000) leading to child maladjustment, attachment problems and emotion dysregulation (Stein et al., 2014). Notably, persistent maternal depression can exacerbate the long-term risk for child mental illness underscoring the urgent need to address the concerns of maternal depression early on to mitigate long term child risks (Dobson & Dozois, 2008). Unfortunately, mental health services are often not easily accessible and accessibility concerns have only increased in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (Druss, 2020; Starace & Ferrara, 2020). In response, we designed a novel and accessible mobile health (mHealth) intervention called Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM) to address maternal mental health concerns, promote supportive parenting, and mitigate impacts of pandemic stress on family health. BEAM is a 10-week program delivered on a mobile application that includes online telehealth group therapy, expert-led educational videos using transdiagnostic therapy (Barlow et al., 2017), and emotion-focused parenting strategies (Roos et al., 2020), a community forum to enhance social connection, and weekly brief surveys for symptom monitoring to track progress. The current study qualitatively analyzed the experiences of mothers in the BEAM program (n = 42) through thematic analysis to better understand participant perspectives of the program and to guide future steps needed to improve mHealth mental health and parenting programs overall. Emergent themes in the thematic framework demonstrate ways in which participants benefited from the BEAM program including building connection with other mothers, increasing knowledge on child behaviour, learning parenting strategies, and building skills to cope with the stressors and demands of parenting. Participant perspectives on ways in which the program can be improved to better address parenting and mental health needs are also discussed. Findings highlight the acceptability of the BEAM program and can inform the development of future mHealth programs that aim to promote family well-being.

Authors

• Kaeley Simpson, University of Manitoba
  Presenting Author

• Makayla Freeman

• Samantha Steele-Mitchell

• Anna MacKinnon, University of Montreal

• Kristin Reynolds, University of Manitoba

• Lianne M Tomfohr-Madsen, The University of Calgary

• Leslie E. Roos, University of Manitoba