Exposure to mass media and interpersonal counseling has additive effects on exclusive breastfeeding and its psychosocial determinants among Vietnamese mothers

The pathways through which behavior change interventions affect breastfeeding practices have not been well studied. This paper examines the pathways from exposure to mass media and interpersonal counseling through hypothesized psychosocial determinants (i.e., knowledge, intention, beliefs, social norms and self-efficacy) to exclusive breastfeeding practice. The findings suggest that combining different behavior change interventions leads to greater changes in psychosocial factors, which in turn positively affects breastfeeding behaviors.