Personal Attitudes or Structural Factors? A Contextual Analysis of Breastfeeding Duration

Publication Date

12-1-2004

Document Type

Article

Abstract

A personal attitudes model (i.e., infant feeding choices are based on personal attitudes primarily) and a structural factors model (i.e., feeding choices are shaped by the structural contexts of women's lives, as much as personal attitudes) of women's breastfeeding behavior were tested by surveying a longitudinal sample of 548 mostly European American women recruited for the Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health Project. Personal attitudes (enjoyment of breastfeeding, gender-role attitudes, and work and family salience) accounted for half as much variance in breastfeeding duration for women who were employed outside the home compared to those who were not. For women employed outside the home, both structural variables (length of maternity leave and workplace flexibility) and personal attitudes predicted duration. These results have implications for how we construct the issue of women's breastfeeding decisions.

Publication Title

Psychology Of Women Quarterly

Volume

28

Issue

4

First Page

388

Last Page

399

DOI

10.1111/j.1471-6402.2004.00156.x

Publisher Policy

pre-print, post-print with embargo

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