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Student midwives' intention to deliver weight management interventions: a theory of planned behaviour & self-determination theory approach

journal contribution
posted on 2018-12-01, 00:00 authored by Emily KotheEmily Kothe, Michelle Lamb, Lauren Bruce, Skye McPhie, Anna KlasAnna Klas, Briony Hill, Helen Skouteris
OBJECTIVES: Overweight and obesity during pregnancy is a risk to the health of mother and child. Midwives can modify this key risk factor by providing weight management interventions to women before and during pregnancy. This study investigated social cognitive determinants of pre-clinical student midwives' intention to provide weight management intervention in preconception and antenatal clinical contexts. Social cognitive determinants from the theory of planned behaviour (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control) and self-determination theory (autonomous motivation) were used to predict pre-clinical students' intentions once they enter practice. METHOD: The sample was 183 female pre-clinical student midwives from 17 Australian universities (age range = 18-54 years). Participants received a cross-sectional questionnaire that measured demographic items, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and autonomous motivation towards providing weight management intervention at two different stages of pregnancy - preconception and antenatal. RESULTS: Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control accounted for 56% of intention to provide weight management interventions to women planning pregnancy; however, the addition of autonomous motivation was non-significant. In contrast, attitudes and subjective norms (but not perceived behavioural control) accounted for 39% of intention to provide weight management interventions to women during pregnancy. Furthermore, the addition of autonomous motivation to the model was significant and accounted for an additional 3.1% of variance being explained. IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS: Curriculum changes that support and increase pre-clinical student midwives' intention should focus on these specific correlates of intention in order to foster long term changes in clinical practice. Changes to the education and training of midwives should be carefully considered to understand their impact on these important determinants of intention to engage in this critical clinical skill.

History

Journal

Nurse education today

Volume

71

Pagination

10 - 16

Publisher

Elsevier

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

eISSN

1532-2793

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, Elsevier Ltd.