Jeanne Holcomb statement

The sociology of the family provides the main basis of my research activities, and my current work is focusing on women's experiences with breastfeeding. My dissertation, entitled Women’s Experiences With Breastfeeding: Challenges, Support, and Suggestions, is a longitudinal qualitative project. Recruitment occurred before birth, and I met with women at several different points in time as they breastfed. The main premise of the study was to conduct a needs assessment for a local hospital to develop ideas for programs for the lactation office to implement to help women increase the duration of breastfeeding. Analysis proceeded by using grounded theory, and one of the main goals was to hear directly from women about the challenges they faced with breastfeeding. While it was a very time-intensive project, it has provided me with new insights and a wealth of data to work with. I am already working on developing manuscripts based off of two main themes that arose in conversations with women - one about how complicated the exclusivity aspect of breastfeeding is and the other about father involvement with breasfteeding.

I intend to continue to do research that is relevant to family life and life course transitions. There are several specific projects that I hope to begin in the next few years. First, I am planning on extending my dissertation research that focused on first-time mothers who wanted to breastfeed. I want to build upon this project by replicating the study and adding multiparous women as well as women who do not want to breastfeed. Additionally, I feel as though the issue of partner support would best be addressed by including the partners themselves in the study. I hope that by broadening the sample I can develop a more well-rounded and thorough description of the current cultural context surrounding experiences of breastfeeding.

While I do want continue researching breastfeeding, I also have plans to move my research agenda into other areas related to family life experiences. For instance, I am interested in learning more about how caregiving arrangements are negotiated between parental and grandparental generations. Despite the fact that there are numerous studies addressing grandparents acting as caregivers in the absence of a parental generation, there is relatively little research about the negotiations that occur when both generations are actively simultaneously caring for children.

Aside from these specific projects, I foresee myself continuing to research family life experiences, especially those related to caring for young children. I also see myself incorporating more diversity into my work, as differences in class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality will necessarily influence experiences within family life. I plan on continuing to present my research at regional and national conferences as well as publishing in peer-reviewed journals. If I do continue my current work on breastfeeding as planned, I also anticipate looking into writing a book.