title: U.S. high school age girls may be receptive to breastfeeding promotion.
abstract: This study sought to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of U.S. high school girls regarding infant feeding to determine if they might be effective targets for breastfeeding promotion strategies. A survey was administered to 100 teenagers in two suburban high schools in the United States. Seventy-nine percent of the girls expected to have children, but only 52% planned to breastfeed. Girls who were breastfed were more likely to plan to breastfeed (83% vs. 35%), as were girls with exposure to breastfeeding (62% vs. 45%). Girls exposed to breastfeeding were more likely to see breastfeeding as beneficial to both the mother (45% vs. 24%) and the infant (86% vs. 60%) and to be interested in breastfeeding education (31% vs. 17%). Teenagers may be an important target group for breastfeeding promotion because many consider the choice of infant feeding before planning pregnancy and have not yet decided whether to breastfeed.
authors.affiliation: lefflerd@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leffler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008404:Massachusetts; D020380:Needs Assessment; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014930:Women / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology*