145 The association of acculturation and complementary infant and young children feeding practices amongst new chinese immigrant mother in england: a mixed methods study

Abstract

Background Acculturation has an influence on the attitudes and perceived behaviour of mothers of different ethnicities. Little data exists on complementary infant and young child feeding practices in minorities in England, particularly in Chinese communities. This mixed research is to explore the association of acculturation and complementary infant and young children feeding practices amongst new Chinese immigrant mothers in England. Methods Our study recruited 32 new Chinese immigrant mothers. All recruited Chinese immigrant mothers completed the IFSQ (Infant Feeding Style Questionnaire) and MIRIPS (Mutual Intercultural Relations In Plural Societies), a sub-set of 15 new Chinese immigrant mothers also participated in semi-structured interviews, which were used to understand the association of acculturation and complementary infant and young children feeding practices amongst new Chinese immigrant mothers. Pearson’s Correlation coefficients analysis and thematic analysis were performed separately, and triangulation was employed to integrate questionnaire and semi-structured interviews findings. Results Each feeding practices subscales score was non-significantly correlated with assimilation (r Conclusion This study suggests that New Chinese immigrant mothers are predisposed and concerned about responsive satiety behaviour, showed better assimilation and integration, provided influence and higher responsiveness to satiety and attention, supplied influence and higher scores on restrictive amount and diet quality, provided influence and lower indulgence to permissive, coaxing and pampering in this study. Some positive complementary infant and young child feeding practices are identified in this research, including feeding a variety of foods, keeping a healthy and balanced diet, eating more vegetables and fruits