Information-Seeking Behavior of Mothers of Twins,
From Birth to 12 Months
Megan D. Steinke
1 May 2006
1. Introduction
The first year as a mother of twins is rich in information-seeking. A whirlwind of new situations, new contexts, and new experiences surrounds the mother, as her babies are born, quite probably spend time in the neo-natal intensive care unit, then come home, and start developing as individuals and as a unit. The transition to mother of twins can be overwhelming, with unfamiliar circumstances constantly developing. The day to day reality of dealing with twins is often very different than the way the mother anticipated it. Because of the increased occurrence of prematurity in twins (Agnew 1997), many more health risks are present for newborn twins than for singletons, which presents a correspondingly larger need for information for a mother of twins. Becoming informed is a large part of being prepared, which makes the mother feel more in control of her new life and able to cope with her twins and the necessities of mothering multiples.
The ways in which a mother of infant twins (“twinfants”) seeks information have gone largely unstudied by LIS researchers. Awareness of the information-seeking behavior of mothers of twinfants is necessary to facilitate their information needs. The population of mothers of twins worldwide is growing, particularly in medically advanced countries like the United States, aided by treatments for infertility and advances in prenatal and neonatal care. More mothers are conceiving and giving birth to twins, and more premature babies are able to survive, even down to 23 weeks gestation or earlier (a normal pregnancy is 40 weeks). An estimated 152,000 sets of twins are born in the United States every year (NOMOTC 2005). Some research has been done on the information-seeking behavior of women pregnant with twins (McKenzie et al); however, the needs of a mother before birth are different than after the children are born. The focus is no longer on the gestation and keeping the babies “cooking” as long as possible: there are now two individuals who may each have their own medical issues and problems, along with the continued medical issues of the mother. The mother’s need for information is dynamic and constant during the first year of life, and her time is less available for seeking the needed information. Time is of the essence when one has two small newborns, information may be needed immediately and yet the mother does not have the time to find it as she did during pregnancy. Understanding the information seeking behavior and information needs of mothers of twinfants will help in designing systems of support for them, and ease of access to the necessary information.
2. Conceptual framework
In this research context, concepts are used from Wilson’s model of information behavior. Information behavior is defined as the behavior “engaged in by persons in relation to information sources and channels” (Wilson 1999). Information seeking is a subset of information behavior; it can mean active or passive searches for behavior including passive attention, passive searching, active searching, and ongoing searching. Passive attention is reception of information without necessarily intending intentional information-seeking; for example, via radio or television programs (Wilson 1996). A passive search is defined as information gained as a side product of another search. Active searching is when a person actively seeks out information, and is the most commonly regarded in information science literature (Wilson 1996). Ongoing search follows active searching, to keep the person updated or to expand the person’s knowledge. Each occasion of these information seeking behaviors constitutes an information-seeking encounter. The encounter may be with the television program, newspaper article, a person, etc.
3. Research questions
The general research question for this study addresses the lack of research already done in this topic area: What information-seeking behaviors are associated with mothers of infant twins, during the first year of their twins’ lives? Further general research questions may subsequently be posed based on the data from the initial question.
Specific questions are as follows:
What are their primary information needs?
What personal channels do they use to acquire information on these topics?
What constraints do they feel exist on their information-seeking, particularly those apart from time and the responsibilities of caring for their infants?
What modes of information practice do they use when connecting with information sources?
4. Research Design
The research is to be conducted using semi-structured individual interviews to collect data and case studies as a sampling technique. Interviews allow the informant to describe their reality without externally imposed terms. Reciprocal exchange can be a more effective research tool than traditional research interviews when the subject is women and childbirth (Carey 2001). Reciprocal exchange and self-disclosure in an interview can help minimize the status difference between researcher and subject, allowing more openness in the interviews and enabling “greater insight, a greater range of responses, and therefore richer data” (Punch 1998). These processes may also open unanticipated issues and areas of discussion. Since this study explores a new topic of research for information behavior, open questions and exploratory semi-structured interviews are most appropriate.
Case study sampling is appropriate for smaller population groups such as mothers of multiples. A target size of ten cases will be used for this study; preferably constituting several examples of different ages of twinfants; for example, mothers of three-month-olds, mothers of six-month-olds, etc. The limitations of convenience sampling are a high probability for bias, no randomness, and unknown representation of the entire population; however, selecting participants from the entire population of mothers of twinfants is not feasible, and availability of participants for the research necessarily takes priority. The target population segment is mothers of twins under the age of one year, adjusted for prematurity. Gaining access to mothers of twins is facilitated by my insider status as a mother of young twins (my monozygotic twin boys are nearly 20 months old) and my constant interactions with other mothers of twins in my functions as a moderator and administrator of online forums for mothers of twins. Subjects will be recruited by handing out fliers at local mothers of multiples club meetings, and by posting fliers on various twin parenting website forums.
Data collection will be in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted in person or via telephone, with follow-up interviews conducted six months after the initial interview. Interviews will be audio recorded and transcriptions made of the interview dialogue. These interviews should be conducted as loosely structured conversations with the participant, in order to facilitate an easy relationship between researcher and subject and to broaden the amount of data collected during the interview. The main questions as follows, with further questions asked depending on the subject’s answers:
1. What sorts of subjects do you usually need to know about at your babies’ age? Do you look at medical advice, or parenting stuff, or nutrition and development information?
2. How have your interests and needs evolved, regarding information about your twins, since their birth?
3. Where do you usually go to look for information? Do you talk to people, look online, read books?
4. What do you think is your biggest problem with finding what you need to know? Is there anything other than just not having time because of the babies that really bogs you down when you’re trying to find something out?
Anonymity will be protected by substituting codes or pseudonyms for identifiers and limiting access to identified data. Informed consent and human subjects approval protect the rights of the study participants. Participants will be informed of how the data collected will be used, the format of the research study, and have the right to withdraw at any time during the study.
The steps for this research project will be as follows:
1. Conduct a literature review on information-seeking among mothers of infants (singleton and multiples) and mothers of twins at any age or gestation.
2. Apply for IRB approval for human study participants.
3. Conduct interviews after IRB approval received.
4. Transcribe audio recordings of interviews.
5. Encode data from transcriptions.
6. Write a research paper analyzing the data to describe the information-seeking behaviors of mothers of twinfants.
References:
Agnew, Connie L., Alan H. Klein, and Jill Alison Ganon. 1997. Twins!: expert advice from two practicing physicians on pregnancy, birth, and the first year of life with twins. New York: HarperPerennial.
Carey, Robert F., Lynne (E.F.) McKechnie, and Pamela J. McKenzie. 2001. “Gaining entry to everyday life information seeking.” Library and Information Science Research v.23, no.4, 319-334.
McKenzie, Pamela J. and Robert F. Carey. 2000. “What’s wrong with that woman? – Positioning theory and information behaviour.” Available at http://www.slis.ualberta.ca/cais2000/mckenzie.htm. Accessed 20 March 2006.
McKenzie, Pamela J. 2003. “Connecting with information sources: information seeking as discursive action.” New review of information behaviour research. v.3, 161-174.
NOMOTC. 2005. “Incidence of multiple births.” http://www.nomotc.org/library/incidence.html Accessed 10 April 2006.
Panteli, Niki. 2003. “Discourse analysis in IS research: constructing presence in virtual organizing.” Available at http://csrc.lse.ac.uk/asp/aspecis/20030111.pdf Accessed 23 March 2006.
Punch, Keith F. 1998. Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative & Qualitative Approaches. London, England: Sage Publications.
Wilson, Tom. 1996. “Information behavior: an interdisciplinary perspective.” http://informationr.net/tdw/publ/infbehav/cont.html Accessed 14 April 2006.
Wilson, T.D., David Ellis, Nigel Ford, and Allen Foster. 1999. “Uncertainty in Information Seeking.” http://informationr.net/tdw/publ/unis/report.html Accessed 14 April 2006.