Knowledge and attitudes of secondary school students to breastfeeding

Abstract

Research has indicated that adolescents had both negative and positive attitudes and have common misconceptions regarding breastfeeding that appear to result from their limited knowledge and reduced exposure to breastfeeding. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitudes towards breastfeeding of adolscent rural and metropolitian secondary school students. A survey of a purposeful sample of 1845 male and female students was carried out. The study results indicated that, overall, Western Australian adolescent secondary school students have less than ideal knowledge of breastfeeding that is consistent with findings from other studies. Female students were found to be more positive towards breastfeeding than male students. The comparision of rural to metropolitian students found that metropolitian students had higher breastfeeding knowledge and were more positive towards breastfeeding than rural students. The study suggests that breastfeeding and lactation information needs to be addressed earlier than adolescence in order to increase breastfeeding knowledge and promote positive attitudes.