Beliefs, Attitudes, and Specific Knowledge

¶ … beliefs, attitudes, and specific knowledge of mothers from different ethnic groups with respect to infant and child nutrition. More specifically, the study was intended to investigate the causal connection between knowledge deficiency and culture-specific beliefs and practices that contribute to the higher incidence of childhood obesity in some ethnic groups. The study revealed that a comprehensive approach to childhood obesity prevention must also address the beliefs and practices that are functions of cultural learning and socialization (McGarvey, Collie, Fraser, et al., 2006).

The study employed a grounded theory approach based on data collected through focus groups consisting of mothers from specific ethnic groups who were beneficiaries of federal government supplemental nutrition program for low-income mothers (McGarvey, Collie, Fraser, et al., 2006). The study participants were engaged in conversation designed to elicit their beliefs, knowledge, and practices in relation to infant and child feeding practices, childhood overweight and obesity issues, healthful dietary intake, physical activity and inactivity, and the information sources about infant feeding upon which they relied for their personal infant feeding practices. The initial data were transcribed, independently codified, and categorized to enable qualitative content analysis (McGarvey, Collie, Fraser, et al., 2006).

Conceptual Methodological Critique

The principal apparent weakness of the study seems to be the failure to include information about the weight of the children of the mothers who participated in the study. Instead, the study design was based on the general statistical information documenting higher rates of overweight and obesity in certain ethnic groups and on data collected from focus groups of participants from those ethnic groups. The identical design and methodology could have been implemented in conjunction with additional information about the relative health and weight of the children. This improved design would have allowed additional analysis of the degree to which the study participants perceived and processed the apparent impact of their practices and the degree to which they adhered to inadvisable practices despite the evidence of negative effects of those practices on their children.

Results, Relevance, and Implications

The data revealed several specific themes. First, there was a lack of awareness of about the connection between physical activity and health. Second, many of the mothers were in the habit of using food as a reward to influence desired behavior. Third, there were issues relating to perceptions about a loss of parental control over feeding once the children enter child care programs or school (McGarvey, Collie, Fraser, et al., 2006). Those issues manifested themselves in over-feeding linked to the failure to identify when their children were sufficiently fed, beliefs and perceptions linking self-efficacy and success as a mother to their children eating everything offered to them, and the influence of the family on maternal feeding practices and decision-making. Finally, the data also suggested that low income is a potential contributing factor to childhood obesity by virtue of living environment that presented barriers to opportunities to pursue outdoor fitness activities (McGarvey, Collie, Fraser, et al., 2006).