Stress, social support, and racial differences: Dominant drivers of exclusive breastfeeding

Interaction plots of perceived stress scores and exclusive breastfeeding. (a) Perceived social support. (b) Received social support.

Findings by Drs. Dara Mendez, Jill Demirci, and Esa Davis show that:
- Childbearing people who reported higher perceived stress were less likely to breastfeed exclusively
- Perceived social support moderated perceived stress, thereby increasing the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding
- Received social support did not moderate perceived stress; however, it directly increased the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding
- Overall, Black childbearing people in our study were less likely to exclusively breastfeed