Social Networking Services as a Tool for Support of Mothers: A Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Difficulties experienced by mothers in raising their children can be resolved using social networking services (SNSs). Being aware of issues associated with SNSs in such situations may be useful for supporting mothers. We herein review the issues associated with using SNSs to support mothers. Methods: This review was conducted using an electronic search engine to search for articles that described issues associated with using SNSs to support mothers, and which were published up to August 2022. Results: After screening, a total of 19 articles were included. We thematically categorized the contents into three major issues associated with using SNSs for support of mothers: (1) issues on the management side, (2) issues on the user side, and (3) social and environmental issues. The mainly discussed issues were the safety of using SNSs and/or securing and training human resources on the management side, busyness of mothers on the user side, as well as sociocultural and communication environment-related limitations as social and environmental issues. Conclusions: The issues we detected would aid in developing the use of SNSs as a tool to support mothers. Further research on these issues is needed.