TY - JOUR
T1 - Breastfeeding Behaviors and Maternal Interaction Quality in a Low-Income, Ethnic Minority Population
AU - Whipps, MacKenzie D.M.
AU - Miller, Elizabeth B.
AU - Bogen, Debra L.
AU - Mendelsohn, Alan L.
AU - Morris, Pamela A.
AU - Shaw, Daniel
AU - Gross, Rachel S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (under Award Number R01HD076390-05), the Tiger Foundation, and the Marks Family Foundation. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Address for reprints: Mackenzie D. M. Whipps, BS, Department of Applied Psychology, New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, 726 Broadway, Suite 504, New York, NY 10003; e-mail: mdw317@nyu.edu.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - Objective:To examine the associations between breastfeeding intensity and underexplored features of maternal-child interaction quality over and above the influence of breastfeeding initiation.Methods:The current study leveraged an on-going, multisite randomized controlled trial of a tiered parenting program for 462 Medicaid-eligible mothers and their infants in the United States. We examined whether breastfeeding intensity and exclusivity was associated with observed maternal sensitivity, intrusiveness, and detachment, as well as self-reported maternal verbal responsiveness, 6 months infant age. Analyses controlled for breastfeeding initiation, demographics, and early parenting experiences.Results:Higher intensity breastfeeding at 6 months was significantly related to higher maternal sensitivity (ß = 0.12, p = 0.004) and lower maternal intrusiveness (ß =-0.10, p = 0.045). There was no significant association between breastfeeding intensity at 6 months and detachment (ß =-0.02, no significant [ns]) or self-reported verbal responsiveness (ß = 0.11, ns). Results were the same when intensity was measured as a dichotomous indicator for exclusive breastfeeding. Effect sizes were small-to-moderate, ranging from Cohen's d = 0.26 to 0.31. Associations did not vary by site, race/ethnicity, infant difficultness, or household poverty.Conclusion:The finding that breastfeeding intensity was significantly and independently associated with maternal sensitivity and intrusiveness is novel in the literature on low-income families from the United States. These findings have implications for breastfeeding promotion strategies and indicate that future research should explore synergistic or spillover effects of interventions aimed at maternal-child interaction quality into the infant feeding domain, particularly in the primary care setting.
AB - Objective:To examine the associations between breastfeeding intensity and underexplored features of maternal-child interaction quality over and above the influence of breastfeeding initiation.Methods:The current study leveraged an on-going, multisite randomized controlled trial of a tiered parenting program for 462 Medicaid-eligible mothers and their infants in the United States. We examined whether breastfeeding intensity and exclusivity was associated with observed maternal sensitivity, intrusiveness, and detachment, as well as self-reported maternal verbal responsiveness, 6 months infant age. Analyses controlled for breastfeeding initiation, demographics, and early parenting experiences.Results:Higher intensity breastfeeding at 6 months was significantly related to higher maternal sensitivity (ß = 0.12, p = 0.004) and lower maternal intrusiveness (ß =-0.10, p = 0.045). There was no significant association between breastfeeding intensity at 6 months and detachment (ß =-0.02, no significant [ns]) or self-reported verbal responsiveness (ß = 0.11, ns). Results were the same when intensity was measured as a dichotomous indicator for exclusive breastfeeding. Effect sizes were small-to-moderate, ranging from Cohen's d = 0.26 to 0.31. Associations did not vary by site, race/ethnicity, infant difficultness, or household poverty.Conclusion:The finding that breastfeeding intensity was significantly and independently associated with maternal sensitivity and intrusiveness is novel in the literature on low-income families from the United States. These findings have implications for breastfeeding promotion strategies and indicate that future research should explore synergistic or spillover effects of interventions aimed at maternal-child interaction quality into the infant feeding domain, particularly in the primary care setting.
KW - breastfeeding
KW - infant feeding
KW - low-income families
KW - parenting
KW - sensitivity
KW - Poverty/statistics & numerical data
KW - United States
KW - Humans
KW - Minority Groups/statistics & numerical data
KW - Infant
KW - Mother-Child Relations
KW - Young Adult
KW - Breast Feeding/statistics & numerical data
KW - Ethnicity
KW - Adult
KW - Female
KW - Maternal Behavior/ethnology
KW - Racial Groups
KW - Medicaid/statistics & numerical data
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U2 - 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000743
DO - 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000743
M3 - Article
C2 - 31613842
AN - SCOPUS:85082779495
SN - 0196-206X
VL - 41
SP - 180
EP - 186
JO - Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
JF - Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
IS - 3
ER -