Child Feeding Attitudes and Expectations: What Do Ethiopian Adolescents Know and Why Does It Matter?

Craig Hadley- University of Michigan  

Abstract: Safe sex is the primary focus of adolescent reproductive health programs in developing countries yet there is often little importance or education aimed at parenting practices. Part of the reason for this missing piece may be that planners believe young mothers conceptualize and enact feeding practices spontaneously in reaction to their infant’s behavior and current contingencies. Anthropological theories of socialization and cultural transmission predict, on the other hand, that children and adolescents will have internalized a rich set of child care beliefs, attitudes, and intentions long before they themselves are at risk of having a child. In this paper we evaluate the extent to which Ethiopian adolescents have formed attitudes about child feeding, the extent to which these match child feeding patterns in their communities, and the extent to which their attitudes and beliefs deviate from current international child feeding recommendations. Drawing on data from a population-based survey of 2100 adolescents in urban, semi-urban, and rural environments in Ethiopia, our results indicate that adolescents’ child feeding intentions are deviate widely from the World Health Organization’s recommendations. These results highlight the value of incorporating anthropological theory into public health and, more practically, suggest that child feeding should be a key component of any adolescent reproductive health program.

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