What is it about?
Addressing women’s social position and improving the health of women offer opportunities for improved health outcomes for society. In the United States, women champion health promotion and access to health care services for their children and families. The mother–child dyad highlights the duality of women’s reproductive health. Particularly in the time period following the birth of a child, the health of mother and baby remain inextricably linked. This study investigated women’s identity, autonomy, and health perceptions. Specifically, in-depth interviews with 44 biological mothers of newborns were conducted to understand women's communication behaviors, system norms, and social networks.
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Why is it important?
Findings suggest opportunities to apply diffusion of innovations theory to better understand women’s health and the health of their families. This study provides a basis for the use of qualitative research to diffuse behaviors where desired health behaviors emerge by listening to the target audience. According to participants, online networks offer reprieve from system norms that create a taboo around women’s health issues. These women engaged in complex research and decision-making processes about health that involved trusting themselves and their newborns. Additionally, findings contribute to theory development by revealing participants’ experiences of stigma and silence, which suggest that gender, as well as race and class, should be an integral component of the empty vessels fallacy in the diffusion of innovations theory.
Perspectives
Results suggest ways that diffusion of innovations concepts may be integrated into the design and development of social marketing campaigns. Findings offer practical opportunities to use diffusion of innovations theory to segment audiences. In particular, results detail how a qualitative study might determine criterion for innovativeness in relation to communication behaviors, system norms, social networks, and system-level variables. Innovativeness is a continuous characteristic of individuals, which serves as a conceptual device to better understand individuals in relation to one another. In this study, self- described innovative participants perceived themselves as opinion leaders based on their information- seeking capability and technological savvy. These women also tended to trust themselves and their own research, while resisting medical authority. Diffusion of innovations theory can strengthen the development and delivery of social marketing campaigns, thereby improving and increasing their potential impact. These findings offer important insights for campaign planners and change agents.
Dr Beth L. Sundstrom
College of Charleston
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Breaking Women’s Health Taboos, Social Marketing Quarterly, February 2014, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1524500414525774.
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