To Guide or to Self-Guide?: Predictors of Preferring a Guided Introduction to Digital Resources That Promote Postpartum Mental Health

Abstract

The first postpartum year presents threats to the mental health of birthing parents and obstacles to accessing care. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) hold potential to increase postpartum mental healthcare access. However, DMHIs tend to promote limited engagement particularly when they are self-guided (when they do not involve contact with a provider). Yet, given that provider support is a limited resource, a balance must be struck between accessibility and intervention intensity (i.e., involving more human contact). Towards achieving this balance, this analysis seeks to identify characteristics that are associated with a reported preference for a human-guided introduction to digital resources aimed at promoting postpartum mental health. In a sample of largely White, non-Latinx, employed, married, and graduate school-educated individuals, multivariate logistic regression revealed that age (p = 0.0095), level of postpartum functioning (p = 0.0057), depression symptoms (p = 0.0099), and anxiety symptoms (p = 0.03) were associated with guide preference. Specifically, more anxious or lower-postpartum-functioning individuals were more likely to report preferring a guide while older or more depressed individuals were less likely to report preferring a guide. These findings can inform clinical recommendations surrounding who is most likely to engage with, and thus benefit from, exclusively self-guided DMHIs during the postpartum period.