How Pregnant Women Learn About Selected Health Issues: Learning Transaction Types

Abstract

Understanding the nature and scope of learning during pregnancy is the basis upon which educators can assist pregnant women during their learning as well as have a positive effect on pregnancy outcome. The purposes of this research were to determine how women learn about weight gain, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use during pregnancy and to identify the relationship between learning, knowledge, and health behaviors. Learning transaction types were developed for this study and provide adult educators with a profile of the environmental learning circumstances of pregnant women. Development of learning transaction types was based upon an adaptation of Tough's concept of planners and Knowles's concept of self-directed learners. Transaction types consisted of the following components: time in learning, settings of learning, and initiators of the learning episodes. The ex post facto research design involved one hour interviews with 127 women at eight hospitals. The majority of women had spent most of their time engaged in other-initiated learning episodes in the one-to-one and nonhuman settings. Learning transaction types were not associated with health behaviors, but were associated with knowledge about smoking issues.