3.3. Thai women’s confidence in breastfeeding and difference between women living in
nuclear families and in extended families
A higher mean score on the BSES illustrates a higher confidence in breastfeeding, where a
lower mean score on the BSES demonstrates a lower confidence. The BSES is divided in two
subgroups; “Intrapersonal thoughts” and “Technique”.
Intrapersonal thoughts
The total mean score for the subgroup “Intrapersonal thoughts” was 3.83 for all women,
which indicates on a higher confidence in breastfeeding. The highest and the lowest scores of
confidence in breastfeeding are presented in Table 4a.
For “Intrapersonal thoughts”, the women living in nuclear families scored the breastfeeding
confidence, a total mean of 3.75, while the women living in extended families scored a total
mean of 3.92. Concerning confidence in breastfeeding between the women living with in
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nuclear families and in extended families there was only one significant difference in the item
“Refrain from bottle-feeding for the first 4 weeks” (p=0.026). The women in the extended
families (4.08) had a higher breastfeeding confidence than the women living in the nuclear
families (3.25).