Evidence To Date
BEAM was developed to meet enormous mental health and parenting needs in the community that parents and providers identified.
BEAM was co-developed with parents and has been tested in 4 different studies with parents of infants and toddlers. The program has undergone ongoing revisions to incorporate feedback and advisory board input.
Why BEAM?
Feasibility
Across all 4 trials, program engagement, program satisfaction, and perceived ease of use have all been high.
BEAM addresses a variety of mental health problems. Depression consistently decreases in parents enrolled in BEAM. We have also shown reductions in anxiety symptoms and sleep problems, compared to usual services. For individuals with higher symptoms, BEAM has contributed to greater reductions in overall mental health symptoms, including anger.
Mental Health
Parenting
BEAM has contributed to greater reductions in harsh parenting, compared to usual services. This includes reductions in conflictual parenting interactions for families with higher mental health symptoms.
References
Joyce, K. M., Rioux, C., MacKinnon, A. L., Katz, L. Y., Reynolds, K., Kelly, L. E., ... & Roos, L. E. (2023). The Building Emotional Awareness and Mental health (BEAM) program developed with a community partner for mothers of infants: protocol for a feasibility randomized controlled trial. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 9(1), 1-14.
MacKinnon, A. L., Simpson, K. M., Salisbury, M. R., Bobula, J., Penner-Goeke, L., Berard, L., ... & Roos, L. E. (2022). Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM): a pilot randomized controlled trial of an app-based program for mothers of toddlers. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 880972.
Xie, E. B., Freeman, M., Penner-Goeke, L., Reynolds, K., Lebel, C., Giesbrecht, G. F., ... & Tomfohr-Madsen, L. (2023). Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM): an open-pilot and feasibility study of a digital mental health and parenting intervention for mothers of infants. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 9(1), 1-13.
Xie, E. B., Simpson, K. M., Reynolds, K. A., Giuliano, R. J., Protudjer, J. L., Soderstrom, M., ... & Roos, L. E. (2022). Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM): study protocol for a phase III randomized controlled trial of the BEAM app-based program for mothers of children 18–36 months. Trials, 23(1), 1-21.