Table 1.
Demographic and Background Characteristics of Families: Overall Sample and by Breastfeeding Initiation and Duration
| |
Breastfeeding initiation and duration |
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographic and background characteristics | Never breastfed (n=234) | Initiated (n=752) | ≤4 months (n=388) | ≥5 months (n=364) | Sample (n=986) |
| % mother is | |||||
| Hispanica | 2.1 | 4.9 | 5.4 | 4.4 | 4.3 |
| Whitea,b | 72.6 | 90.8 | 88.4 | 93.4 | 86.5 |
| Blacka,b | 25.6 | 4.4 | 6.2 | 2.5 | 9.4 |
| Another racea | 1.7 | 4.8 | 5.4 | 4.1 | 4.1 |
| Maternal education (in years)a,b | 13.04 (2.23) | 14.99 (2.35) | 14.48 (2.30) | 15.53 (2.28) | 14.53 (2.46) |
| Maternal age (in years)a,b | 26.29 (5.58) | 29.5 (5.18) | 28.29 (5.16) | 30.84 (4.86) | 28.76 (5.45) |
| Family income-to-needs ratioa,b | 2.12 (1.97) | 3.38 (2.76) | 3.09 (2.82) | 3.70 (2.65) | 3.08 (2.65) |
| % mother is married/cohabitinga,b | 85.0 | 96.3 | 94.1 | 98.6 | 93.6 |
| % child is male | 51.3 | 50.7 | 52.6 | 48.6 | 50.8 |
| % child is first-borna,b | 37.2 | 45.5 | 49.5 | 41.2 | 43.5 |
| Early relationship quality (averaged maternal reports, 1 month–age 3 years) | 4.60 (0.93) | 4.55 (0.87) | 4.50 (0.89) | 4.60 (0.86) | 4.56 (0.89) |
Means and SDs are presented for continuous variables; percentages are presented for dichotomous variables. Mothers who initiated breastfeeding comprise mothers described as breastfeeding for up to 4 months and for 5 months or longer.
a
Characteristics of mothers who never breastfed and those who did significantly differ (p<0.05).
b
Characteristics of mothers who breastfed for up to 4 months and those who breastfed for 5 months or longer significantly differ (p<0 .05).