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

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 assupporting 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.