Blogs may help women transition to 'mom'

PROVO — New moms who blog seem to transition into parenthood with a greater sense of social support and connection. And that can mean less depression, parenting stress and negative marital adjustment, according to research conducted at BYU.

For the study, which will be published in the Journal of Maternal Child Health, the Brigham Young University researchers surveyed 157 new moms about their use of the Internet and what they did there. They found the moms, whose average age was 27 and most of whom had been married for about three years, spend roughly three hours a day on the computer, most of that time online. They found no particular connection between time spent on social network sites like Facebook and MySpace and maternal wellbeing, but one did exist with blog use, whether as a reader, a writer or both.

The researchers considered maternal wellbeing to include marital satisfaction, couple conflict levels, parenting stress and maternal depression.

"Blogging may improve new mothers' wellbeing as they feel more connected to the world outside their home through the Internet," they wrote.

"I have always been interested in the transition to parenthood," said lead author Brandon T. McDaniel, a BYU undergraduate at the time of the study who is now pursuing his master's and doctorate degrees at Penn State. "It is an amazing time and also extremely stressful and difficult to go from being a couple to raising a child." Noting the popularity of blogging, particularly so-called "mommy blogs," McDaniel wanted to assess whether they helped that transition. He was aided in the research by co-authors and assistant professors in the BYU School of Family Life, Sarah M. Coyne and Erin K. Holmes.

Surfing the web

McDaniel was surprised by how long the new mothers spent on computer each day, but said the question was whether it was a good or bad thing. "It appears from this study it could be a good thing as long as it is not taking away time for direct interaction they should be having with the infant. It looks like those who participate in blogging have greater feelings of connection to friends and extended family and that contributes to a feelings of social support and snowballs into other domains of their life — marital quality, less stress, possibly feeling better about their marriage."

But he cautions the study noted a correlation, without proving causation. It's "really an initial look at it," he said, that will take more work. It could be that the blogging mothers are those who already feel more connected. He suspects, though, he said, that blogging itself increases whatever sense of connectedness the woman already has.