JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The tendency of parents to consume alcohol during the COVID-19. pandemic is likely to be moderated by pandemic related stress combined with the ongoing demands of childcare and home-based education, which are reported to be more burdensome for females than males.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to describe alcohol-related content posted by mothers on Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods:

Using two popular hashtags, #momjuice and #winemom on Instagram, 50 posts on each were garnered from the “top posts” tab. The coding categories were created inductively and were as follows: displays alcohol (drinking/holding alcohol or alcohol itself); person is making alcoholic beverages; type of alcohol featured or discussed; mentions anxiety and/or depression/mental state; highlights struggling (in general); highlights parenting challenges; encourages alcohol consumption; discourages alcohol consumption; features a person wearing clothing or show products promoting alcohol; promotes alcohol rehabilitation; discusses caffeine to alcohol daily transition throughout the day; and mentions other drugs aside of caffeine and alcohol.

Results:

Overall, the 100 videos had a total of 5,108 comments and 94,671 likes. The respective averages (standard deviations) were 51.08 (77.94) and 946.71 (1731.72). A majority of the videos (58%) featured a woman, while only 5% featured a male. The remaining videos featured a non-binary individual (10%), both a male and female (6%), or this was not applicable (21%). A majority (>50%) of videos reviewed encouraged alcohol consumption (66%) and/or displayed alcohol (56%). Of the 66 that encouraged and/or displayed alcohol, the overwhelming type of alcohol discussed or featured was wine (55%). Only 6% of the videos reviewed discouraged alcohol use and only 4% provided the audience with a disclaimer. None of the videos observed promoted/endorsed alcohol rehabilitation in any way.Only 37% of the videos reviewed highlighted struggle. However, these videos garnered more than a majority of the likes (52.3%). Videos that showed struggle received an average of 1,359.57 (SD=2,108.02) likes. Those that did not show struggle had an average of 704.24 (SD=1,447.46) likes. An independent one-tailed t-test demonstrated this difference to be statistically significant, as well, with p=.04991.

Conclusions:

The findings of this investigation suggest that though these hashtags ostensibly exist to valorize excess alcohol consumption, they may be serving as a support system for mothers who are experiencing increased burdens and role stress during the pandemic. Given the strains placed on mothers overall and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts must be taken to increase access to and affordability of telehealth-based mental health care. Social media forums such as Instagram are a place to potentially highlight the availability of such services.