Effect of social media-based psychodrama therapy on reduction in symptoms of postpartum depression in women with first birth experience: The contributing role of spousal support

Abstract

We aimed to examine the impact of social media-based psychodrama therapy in reducing postpartum depression symptoms in first-time mothers. We conducted this study using a quasi-experiment with the use of pretest, posttest and follow-up evaluation after six months. We found a significant main effect of social media-based psychodrama therapy in reducing symptoms of postpartum depression in women F(1,503)= 713.413, p = 0.001, eta squared .441. We also found that this relationship is moderated by spousal support like physical, emotional and social support. Additionally, our results showed that first-time mothers experience PPD symptoms after childbirth more than experienced mothers. We equally found that psychodrama contributed in reducing symptoms of PPD in experienced mothers more than in first-time mothers. The implication of our result is that first-time mothers require more attention to assist them to recover from PPD symptoms than their experienced counterparts.