AUTHOR=Monteiro Fabiana , Pereira Marco , Canavarro Maria Cristina , Fonseca Ana
TITLE=Be a Mom, a Web-Based Intervention to Promote Positive Mental Health Among Postpartum Women With Low Risk for Postpartum Depression: Exploring Psychological Mechanisms of Change
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry
VOLUME=12
YEAR=2021
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.701107
DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.701107
ISSN=1664-0640
ABSTRACT=Background: This study explored whether Be a Mom, a brief and unguided cognitive behavioral web-based intervention, was effective in promoting psychological processes (self-compassion, psychological flexibility, emotion regulation) among low-risk postpartum women. Effects of Be a Mom in psychological processes compared with a control group were examined at post-intervention and at 4-months follow-up. Additionally, this work explored whether changes in psychological processes mediated improvements in positive mental health at postintervention.
Methods: In total, 367 postpartum women presenting low risk for postpartum depression were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 191) or to a waiting-list control group (n = 176).
Results: Compared with the control group, the intervention group reported significantly greater baseline to postintervention increases in self-compassion. No significant effects were found at the 4-month follow-up. Multilevel mediation showed that self-compassion improvements significantly mediated improvements in positive mental health among the intervention group. No significant results were found for psychological flexibility or emotion regulation.
Conclusions: This study suggests that Be a Mom has the potential to cultivate self-compassion among low-risk postpartum women and that this may be a key mechanism for promoting positive mental health in this context.
Clinical Trial Registration:www.clinicaltrials.gov, identifier: NCT04055974.