Parents' Information Seeking and Use Regarding Infant and Toddler Feeding

Open Access
- Author:
- Hepworth, Allison D.
- Graduate Program:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 04, 2018
- Committee Members:
- Timothy Raymond Brick, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Meg Leavy Small, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Leann Birch, Committee Member
Kathleen Loralee Keller, Committee Member
Eun Kyoung Choe, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Information Seeking
Infancy
Parents
Information Use
Infant Nutrition
Social Media
Decision Trees
Random Intercept Model
Health behavior
Health information seeking - Abstract:
- The ultimate aim of translational research in the prevention sciences is to establish evidence-based programs and services that facilitate the adoption or maintenance of positive health behaviors. Success is indicated by reductions in the incidence of mental and behavioral health disorders at the individual and population levels, and universal support of evidence-based prevention policies. One barrier to realizing the translational research agenda is a limited understanding of how individuals naturally find and apply information related to preventive health behaviors. Such formative research could guide the development and adaption of evidence-based programs and services by offering insight into the content and delivery characteristics that promote information exposure, satisfaction, and application. Childhood obesity is an especially urgent public health problem that would benefit from research that supports translation. Recent estimates suggest that nearly one-in-five children have obesity, and over half of today’s children will have obesity by age 35 without intervention. Parents of infants under 2 years of age have been identified as promising targets for childhood obesity prevention because of their proximal influence on children’s eating behavior and growth trajectories. Research is rapidly accumulating across the translational research spectrum on the association between parents’ child feeding behavior and later obesity risk. To ensure this research develops into evidence-based programs and services that improve public health, formative research is needed. The purpose of this dissertation is to inform the translational research process in the field of childhood obesity prevention by providing formative research on parents’ information seeking and use regarding infant and toddler feeding. I first present a new conceptual model of information seeking and use (the ISU model) constructed from existing theories of health behavior, information behavior, and health information seeking that provides the foundation for the research questions addressed in the dissertation (Chapter 1). I then explore how parents’ satisfaction with information about infant and toddler feeding is associated with their information seeking aptitude and information acquisition characteristics using data from a cross-sectional, parent-reported online survey (N = 423) regarding a naturally occurring information seeking occasion (Chapter 2). I use the same dataset to explore how parents’ behavioral application of the information they obtain is associated with their information seeking aptitude, information integration, and behavioral capacity and intent characteristics (Chapter 3). Lastly, I synthesize the information presented in Chapters 1 through 3 and present recommendations for future research regarding the design and adaptation of evidence-based programs for childhood obesity prevention (Chapter 4). The results presented in Chapter 2 suggest that parents’ satisfaction with infant and toddler feeding information was strongly and positively associated with their perceptions of information utility and trust in the information. Ease of information acquisition and clarity also showed positive and significant associations with satisfaction, however the effects were smaller in comparison to utility and trust. The results presented in Chapter 3 demonstrate that behavioral application of infant feeding information was classified best by feeling motivated by the information and moderate-to-high ratings of information satisfaction. Including demographic and socioeconomic characteristics did not improve the classification of behavioral application above and beyond information seeking aptitude, integration, and behavioral capacity and intent characteristics. Future research can use the ISU model and the empirical findings presented in this dissertation to guide the measurement and manipulation of variables across the information seeking and use process to optimize the reach and impact of evidence-based information.