Social and Psychological Determinants of Breast-Feeding and bottle-Feeding Mothers

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Abstract
Our study examined the psychological and sociological factors of mothers who breast-feed and mothers who bottle-feed. Most of the data came from 124 Israeli mothers who had just given birth, but selective data were also collected on three additional samples—108, 465, and 135 new mothers. The psychological measures included the Bar-Ilan Sex Role Inventory (Tzuriel, 1984) and body image as measured by the drawing of a dressed and a naked woman. None of the psychological factors distinguished between the two groups of women. Social factors, however, did distinguish between the two groups: Mothers who breast-fed were of Asian-African background; were less educated; held blue collar jobs or did not work; perceived their husbands, relatives, and friends as supporting their decision to breast-feed; and tended to be more religious. The discriminant function analysis—which predicted 73% of the cases—showed that the mother's education, her religiousness, and her perceived support of friends and relatives were the most important factors.

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