The effect of social media pregnancy support groups on expectant mothers.

As internet use grows, more people have turned to the internet to obtain health-related information, including expectant mothers. While internet can help pregnant women gather information about each stage of the pregnancy, online searches and behaviors that are motivated by a woman's need for reassurance about herself or her pregnancy may reinforce anxiety. The main goal of this study is to understand how being in a pregnancy support group on social media could have an impact on women’s mental health. The participants in this study were 202 women between the age 18 – 39 (M = 29.1, SD = 4.9). The results revealed that: (1) Women who were first time mothers did not show significantly more anxiety symptoms compared to women who already had children. (2) Women who were more active in discussions in their pregnancy group scored higher on the GAD-7 scale, which is the opposite of the current study’s second hypotheses. (3) Women who sought information frequently online about pregnancy related topics scored higher on the GAD-7 scale, compared to the women who didn’t. Key words: Pregnancy, pregnancy social support groups, online search, anxiety.

Author dc:creator

• Gintare Butkuté 1998-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Háskólinn í Reykjavík

• Sálfræði
• Meðganga
• Samfélagsmiðlar
• Netið
• Kvíði
• Psychology
• Pregnancy
• Anxiety
• Social media

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1946/42093

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:skemman.is:1946/42093