Thank you to all our study participants! We are so grateful to everyone who participated and taught us what young parents are looking for to support their wellbeing!

Here is a summary of our pilot and some early findings.

We advertised the study between October 2020 and February 2021, through social media ads and word of mouth. 69 people contacted us to learn more about the study. We connected with 30 of them and 10 of them enrolled and participated. We held our first IMAGINE group in December 2020 – March 2021, with our first 7 participants, and our second group in February – May 2021, with 3 participants.

During the groups, participants discussed the IMAGINE content and shared their perspectives on how our activities, thoughts and contact with other people shape our mood and emotions.

What we heard about participants’ experiences in the group:

• All participants said they would recommend IMAGINE to a friend.
• 89% of participants said that IMAGINE helped them learn new information and feel better emotionally.
• 67% of participants said their thoughts changed as a result of IMAGINE
• 25% said their behavior changed as a result of IMAGINE.

Participants told us:

“[IMAGINE] helped me just understand that my emotions were normal… Before I felt like I was broken or I needed to be fixed or there’s something wrong with me. And now… there’s nothing wrong with me. [I’m] normal.”

“You get support from people your age and y’all got the same type of stuff going on, so it’s kind of like… you’re not alone.”

“Now I’m able to identify if I’m having a frustrating day. I use one of the strategies, and I’m able to calm myself down and actually realize what is going on… and help with my frustration.”

What’s next for IMAGINE?

Our participants told us that they found it helpful to learn new skills and connect with other young parents through IMAGINE. So we are now planning to test IMAGINE in a larger study to understand in more detail whether it improves participants’ mental wellness. Participants also shared some recommendations to improve the program, including having more activities at the start of the group to build community connection, shortening some of our messages, and incorporating an in-person initial group meeting.

We’re so excited to keep testing and improving the IMAGINE program to support young parents maintain a healthy mood and take care of themselves and their babies!