Promotion of parental roles and improvement of mental health using an online program: A randomized controlled trial

抄録

Aim

The purpose of this study was to develop a program incorporating elements of meaning in life and self-compassion and to examine the effects of program participation on the parental role and mental health promotion of mothers with infants.

Methods

A program was designed to help mothers find meaning in their lives and increase self-compassion. The intervention period lasted for 6 weeks, with 6 online sessions once a week and homework assignments. The online sessions were designed to allow mothers to interact with each other. Participants in the study were first-time mothers with infants between 3 and 6 months of age. This study was designed to be an open-label, parallel randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomly allocated to the intervention group (n = 16) that received the program and control group (n = 16) that lived a normal life. The control group received the same program after the intervention group received the program. Before and after the intervention, and the Measured Early Childhood Parenting Scale (MECP), which measures parental roles, the K6, which measures mental health, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire Japanese version (MLQ-J-Presence), which measures meaning in life, and the Japanese version of the shortened version of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS-J-SF-Positive), which measures self-compassion, were measured and analyzed. The main outcome was MECP scores. The surveys were conducted at baseline and after the intervention. The intervention group was also surveyed at 3 and 6 months postintervention.

Results

The randomized controlled trial results revealed that the amount of change in MECP was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group. The amount of change in K6 was significantly higher in the control group than in the intervention group.

Conclusion

This study offered first-time mothers raising infants 3–6 months of age a program that would help them promote parental roles and increase self-compassion. Our results showed that pre- and postintervention differences in the MECP scores, measuring parental roles, were statistically significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group. In addition, the pre- and postintervention differences in K6 scores, which measure mental health, were statistically significantly higher in the control group than in the intervention group. These findings suggest that the program may be effective for promoting parental roles and maintaining mental health.