Work, Race and Breastfeeding Outcomes for Mothers in the United States

Details

• Personal Author:
  Palma A ; Ro A ; Whitley WD
• Description:
  Background: In the United States, mothers' employment status and occupation are related to breastfeeding. However, it is unclear whether not working leads to longer breastfeeding duration even when compared to professional/managerial jobs, which tend to accommodate breastfeeding better than service/manual labor jobs. Furthermore, occupation and breastfeeding are racially patterned, and it is possible that race could moderate the relationships between mother's work and breastfeeding. Methods: Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we modeled breastfeeding duration based on mother's employment/occupation (not working, professional/managerial work, or service/labor work) during the first 6 months postpartum, as well as mother's race (White, Black or other) and other potential confounders. We used zero-inflated negative binomial regression models and tested an interaction between employment/occupation type and race. Predictive margins were used to compare breastfeeding duration among subgroups. Results: Mothers working in service/labor occupations had the shortest breastfeeding duration of the three employment/occupation groups, and there was no significant difference in duration between not working and professional/managerial occupation. White mothers had longer breastfeeding duration than Black mothers on average. When we included an interaction between employment/occupation and race, we found that among White mothers, non-working mothers breastfed the longest, while mothers in service/labor work breastfed for the shortest duration, but among Black mothers, mothers in professional/managerial work breastfed for longer than mothers in the other two work categories. Discussion: Race moderated the relationship between employment status/occupation type and breastfeeding such that, for White mothers, not working was the most advantageous circumstance for breastfeeding, in line with traditional work-family conflict theory. In contrast, for Black mothers, professional/managerial work was the most advantageous circumstance. These findings support the idea of the Market-Family Matrix, which allows that different work scenarios may be more or less advantageous for parenting behaviors like breastfeeding, depending on mothers' circumstances. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Family Occupational Health Race Factors Safety Women
• Keywords:
  Breastfeeding Families Occupations Professional Workers Racial Factors Services Work-life Balance
• ISSN:
  1932-6203
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  16
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062729
• Citation:
  PLoS One 2021 May; 16(5):e0251125
• Contact Point Address:
  Margaret D. Whitley, Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States of America
• Email:
  mwhitley@uci.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• Performing Organization:
  University of California Los Angeles
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  PLoS One
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:19612387cc30ab91bf9a115c4e3c5ec574e909568a1800b950dd036c3d00b92543660c656c804141ada92bbaf17c31c63cb4cadbe9f2b6bb07fd7e4e72939ddf
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225920/cdc_225920_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 691.55 KB ]