Health information practices of young parents

Pages778-802
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JD-07-2016-0089
Date11 September 2017
Published date11 September 2017
AuthorDevon Greyson
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Health information practices
of young parents
Devon Greyson
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Abstract
Purpose Despite societal investment in providing health information to young parents, little is known
about the health information practices of young parents themselves. The purpose of this paper is to explore
young parentshealth information practices in context.
Design/methodology/approach This constructivist grounded theory study investigates the health
information practices of young mothers and fathers (age 16-23) in Greater Vancouver, Canada. Data were
collected over 16 months via individual interviews with 39 young parents (37 mothers, 2 fathers) and
observations at young parent programs. Inductive analysis was iterative with data collection.
Findings Young parent health information practices emerged, clustering around concepts of information
seeking, assessment, and use, with sharing conceptualised as a form of use. Many young parents were
sophisticatedinformation seekers, and most were highly networked using mobile technology. While access to
informationwas rarely a barrier,assessment of the largequantity of health-relatedinformationposed challenges.
Research limitations/implications These findings are not generalisable to all populations. Newly
identified information-seeking practices such as defensive and subversive seeking should be explored further
in future research.
Practical implications Rather than focusing on quantity of information, health and information
professionals trying to reach young parents should focus on fostering information literacy skills and building
relationships as trusted information providers.
Social implications Young parent experiences of social marginalisation influenced their information
practices and should be taken into consideration.
Originality/value This first investigation of young parent information practices can guide services and
resources for young parents, suggests that sharing might be conceptualised as a subset of use, and highlights
new information-seeking practices by marginalised individuals, such as defensive and subversive seeking.
Keywords Behaviour, Health education, Information, Children (age groups), Health, Information studies
Paper type Research paper
Due to the conceptualization of young pregnancy as a social and medical problem within
western modernity (Bonell, 2004; Furstenberg, 1976; Luker, 1997), and of teenagers and
young adults as inexperienced and riskyparents with poor decision-making skills
(Kelly, 2007; Shoveller and Johnson, 2006), a number of information-intensive health
interventions have targeted young parents. Despite societal investment in providing health
information to young parents, little is known about the health information practices of
young parents themselves. Understanding the ways young parents seek, share, assess, and
use health information in their everyday lives can improve interventions aiming to support
pregnant and parenting youth.
This longitudinal, qualitative study explores the health information practices of a group
of young mothers and fathers in Greater Vancouver, Canada. Using a combination of
ethnographic observation of young parent services and in-depth individual interviews with
39 young parents themselves over the course of 16 monthstime, young parents
information practices and experiences related to a variety of health issues were explored.
Using constructivist grounded theory, analysis of the health-related information seeking,
assessment, and use practices of this group of young parents emerged. The findings raise
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 5, 2017
pp. 778-802
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-07-2016-0089
Received 8 July 2016
Revised 17 February 2017
Accepted 25 February 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
The author thanks Drs Jean Shoveller, Joy Johnson, and Heather OBrien for their supervision of this
research. This work was funded by Vanier Canada and by Canadian Institutes of Health Research
grants MOP-201209 and GIR-201212.
778
JD
73,5
questions regarding the extent to which young parents as a group are different from
other populations in terms of information access, literacy, and use, and therefore carries
implications for how information interventions targeting young parents are best shaped
and delivered.
Literature
While no published research to date has specifically investigated the information practises
of young parents[1], there are related literatures upon which this work may build. These
include research and theory on adolescent everyday life information seeking (ELIS) and
information practices, youth sexual and reproductive health information seeking, studies of
(adult) parental information practices and behaviour, and investigations of contemporary
western practices of intensive parenting.
The body of life information seeking (LIS) research focusing on adolescentsinformation
practices is relatively small (Agosto, 2011), and within the extant literature everyday life
studies of teens are in the minority, with much research focusing instead on school-related
information needsand seeking (Bernier, 2007). Agosto and Hughes-Hassell (2006a,b) took an
ELIS approach(Savolainen, 1995), integratingmultiple forms of qualitative data generatedby
urban teenagers in Pennsylvania, USA, to understand why such youth participated in ELIS.
The resulting model integrated developmental psychology and information behaviour
research by mapping common information needs to adolescent developmental needs such as
social, physical, cognitive, and sexual self-development (Agosto and Hughes-Hassell, 2006b,
p. 1419). boyd and colleagues (boyd, 2014; boyd and Marwick, 2011) have conducted
considerableethnographic research on Americanyouths online informationpractices, finding
overall that young peoples social practices online were natural extensions of youth culture
that was previously enacted in offline spaces, to which young peoples access has become
increasinglyrestricted. Such findings are largelysupported by additional research by Agosto
and colleagues (Agosto et al., 2012; Agosto and Abbas, 2011).
Burek Pierce (2007) reviewed the literature on adolescent sexual and reproductive health
information needs, finding that information-seeking research on the topic is primarily being
conducted by health researchers sometimes with findings that are at odds with LIS theory
and practice. Youth sexual health researchers outside of LIS are turning increasing attention
to the role of the internet in providing confidential information services to youth
(Barman-Adhikari and Rice, 2011; Gray et al., 2005; Hottes et al., 2012; Shoveller et al., 2012),
but these studies rarely draw upon information behaviour theory or findings such as those
by Agosto or boyd. As noted by Burek Pierce (2007), such research has identified myriad
gaps in access to sexual health information for youth, and suggests that increased
information could alleviate related health inequities.
Information researchers have studied the everyday information seeking and practices of
certain groups of adult parents, with a focus on mothers. McKenzies extensive research on
information-seeking practices of twin mothers (McKenzie, 2006a), the midwife-client
relationship (McKenzie, 2002, 2004, 2006b, 2009, 2010), and everyday life information
practices of mothers (Carey et al., 2001; McKenzie, 2003), suggests that mothers engage in
both active and passive information-seeking practices, as well as exchanges of information
between women and their maternity care providers. McKenzie (2003) developed a model of
information practices based on her study of 19 adult women in Canada who were pregnant
with twins. This model distinguishes among active information seeking, active scanning for
information, non-directed monitoring for information, and seeking by proxy as different
types of everyday information seeking, and identifies practices used for connecting and
interacting with information sources in the face of barriers.
Fisher and Landry explored peer information grounds informal spaces for peer-to-peer
information exchange (Fisher, 2005) of older, affluent stay-at-home mothers, using a
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Health
information
practices of
young parents

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