Publication Date

1982

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Pender, Nola J., 1941-

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Nursing

LCSH

Infants--Nutrition; Mexican American women--Education

Abstract

Breast feeding rates have been decreasing in the low income and poorly educated populations. Among Mexican-Americans, breast feeding is at a 40% level. The reasons why women choose breast feeding are varied and are affected by many factors. The purpose of this study was to determine whether an infant feeding class, given prenatally, would have an effect on attitudes toward breast feeding among women within the Mexican-American culture. Mexican-American women from the Cook County Department of Public Health-St. Francis Prenatal Clinic were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups after informed voluntary consent was obtained. A total of 30 subjects was used. A post-test interview was administered two weeks after the infant feeding class to both groups to determine if an attitude and normative belief change had occurred, Ajzen and Fishbein's format for attitude measurement was employed in construction of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was translated into Spanish. The hypothesis that an infant feeding program i would result in a more positive attitude toward breast feeding in the experimental than in the control group was not supported by the data. Normative beliefs proved to be a much better predictor of intention to breast feed than attitudes. Therefore, the hypothesis that women attending the program would be more influenced by personal attitudes than social norms when compared to the control group was also not supported. The study results indicate the importance of nurses including significant others in infant feeding education classes when providing care to expectant mothers in the Mexican-American culture.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

v, 47 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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