The research question for this descriptive investigation was: Does a difference exist between the maternal feeding choice and the perceived locus of control? The investigation was conducted from September 15, 1982 until October 29, 1982 in a privately owned community hospital in Southeastern United States. Two randomly selected days per week were used for data collection.
The sample consisted of fifty Caucasian women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four who had delivered a normal, viable, and stable infant within the past twenty-four to seventy-two hours. The sample consisted of twenty-six breast feeding and twenty-four formula feeding women.
The subjects completed the Levenson Multifocal I/E Scale (1972) and the Demographic Tally Tool (1982), developed by the investigator. The Levenson Multifocal I/E Scale was used to ascertain the perceived degree of internalization and control by powerful others, chance and fate. The Levenson Multifocal I/E Scale consisted of twenty-four “I” statements in the Likert format. Additionally, the subjects verbally completed the Demographic Tally Tool to compile demographic data about the subjects. The Demographic Tally Tool consisted of eleven factual questions.
An inferential statistical computation, the Independent t-Test, was utilized to compare the differences between the means of the two groups. Additionally, descriptive statistics such as the mean and the mode, were employed to compare the demographic data between the two groups.
The analysis of the inferential statistics revealed a difference in the two groups. The formula feeding group perceived significantly (p = .05) a higher degree of control by powerful others, chance and fate than did the breast feeding group. The differences between the two groups’ means on internalization proved not to be statistically significant.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-6614 |
| Date | 01 January 1983 |
| Creators | Stephan, Glenda E. |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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