Facebook Feeds and Child Feeding: A Qualitative Study of Thai Mothers in Online Child Feeding Support Groups

Abhirat Supthanasup, Cathy Banwell and Matthew Kelly
Additional contact information
Abhirat Supthanasup: National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Acton, Canberra 2601, Australia
Cathy Banwell: National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Acton, Canberra 2601, Australia
Matthew Kelly: National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Acton, Canberra 2601, Australia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Mothers have traditionally sought child feeding information from social connections. While mothers are heavily engaged on social media and value peer support in online communities, very little is known about how they use online communities for information about child feeding practices after exclusive breastfeeding cessation. This study explores mothers’ perceptions of joining Facebook child feeding support groups. Individual semi-structured interviews with ten Thai mothers were conducted. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using a phenomenological hermeneutical approach. Our findings highlighted that Thai mothers participated in Facebook child feeding support groups in a deliberate effort to reduce their uncertainty by normalizing the process through accessing the shared experiences of others. One of their intentions was to seek menu recipes based on favorable psychosocial and environmental factors. Implications for using social media in health promotion and communication include the importance of building appropriate common practices through social collaboration and interactivity to supplement traditional knowledge and attitudes.

Keywords: social media; Facebook; infants and young child feeding; qualitative; Thai (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/5882/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/5882/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:10:p:5882-:d:813891

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().