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Excessive Facebook usage linked with depression in new moms
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The correlation with too much Facebook and depressive symptoms shown by new mothers could be a sign of deeper problems. (Shutterstock/-)
A
span style="line-height: 20.8px;">As the use of social media has become a daily habit, it's fairly common to see people share their lives to the world, even personal matters. However, a recent study in Springer's journal Sex Roles claims that too much posting could be a sign of bad news for new mothers.
Sex Roles stated, “new mothers, in particular, may use Facebook to practice behaviors that align with their mothering identity and meet broader societal expectations, or in other words, to 'do motherhood'.”
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The Sex Roles survey identified that mothers who were bothered by standards set by society on their parenting style and “those who believed that society holds them to excessively high standards for parenting” engaged in more Facebook activity and generally tend to have stronger reactions to Facebook commentary.
The survey also states that these mothers were more likely to put their child in their Facebook profile picture, seek validation from the society and have higher parenting standards. They also experienced an increase in depressive symptoms when their Facebook activity increased.
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However, Jill Yavorsky, co-author of the study and doctoral student in sociology said, “the message of the study isn’t that Facebook is necessarily harmful, but that using Facebook may not be an effective platform for women to seek and gain external validation that they’re good moms.” (asw)
