Department of Nutrition, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1920, USA.
Public Health Nutr. 2010 Apr;13(4):522-30. doi: 10.1017/S1368980009991972. Epub 2009 Nov 16.
Introduction of solid foods before the recommended age of 4-6 months is a common practice in the USA, and appears to be especially prevalent among infants who are enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Currently, little is known about how fathers influence early infant feeding decisions, outside the decision to breast- or formula-feed. The purpose of the current study was to explore how fathers perceive the role they play in feeding and caring for their infants.
Participants were twenty-one male caregivers, who were fathers or partners of the mothers of WIC income-eligible infants residing in two rural East Tennessee counties. In-depth, audio-taped telephone interviews were completed. Interviews were transcribed, coded and analysed according to standard grounded theory procedures to identify emergent concepts. These concepts were explored and linked together to become themes.
Three themes emerged: (i) fathers' roles; (ii) fathers' perceptions; and (iii) control. Concepts within the theme of fathers' roles included physical and emotional support for both mother and infant, validation of maternal decisions, and financial support. In the present study, fathers' perceptions were primarily shaped by their own experiences, advice from those with experience, and information sought by the fathers. The theme of control appears to be the linkage between the fathers' attempts to modify infant behaviour and infants' response.
A final conceptual model was created to explain the interrelated nature of the themes and may be helpful to those who work with fathers and/or families of new infants.
在美国，4-6 个月之前引入固体食物是一种常见做法，而且似乎在参加特殊补充营养计划（WIC）的婴儿中尤为普遍。目前，人们对父亲如何影响婴儿早期喂养决策知之甚少，除了母乳喂养或配方奶喂养的决策之外。本研究的目的是探讨父亲如何看待他们在喂养和照顾婴儿方面的角色。
参与者为 21 名男性照顾者，他们是 WIC 收入合格婴儿的母亲的父亲或伴侣，这些婴儿居住在田纳西州东部的两个农村县。通过深入的、录音电话访谈完成。根据标准扎根理论程序对访谈进行转录、编码和分析，以识别出新兴概念。这些概念被探索并联系在一起成为主题。
出现了三个主题：（i）父亲的角色；（ii）父亲的看法；和（iii）控制。主题“父亲的角色”中的概念包括对母亲和婴儿的身体和情感支持、对母亲决策的验证以及经济支持。在本研究中，父亲的看法主要受到他们自己的经验、有经验的人的建议以及父亲自己寻求的信息的影响。控制主题似乎是父亲试图改变婴儿行为和婴儿反应之间的联系。
创建了一个最终的概念模型来解释主题的相互关系，这可能对那些与新婴儿的父亲和/或家庭一起工作的人有帮助。
