Positive Deviance in Child Nutrition - with Emphasis on Psychosocial and Behavioural Aspects and Implications for Development (UNU, 1990, 153 pages): Research considerations: Underlying assumptions or hypotheses for research in positive deviance

Positive Deviance in Child Nutrition - with Emphasis on Psychosocial and Behavioural Aspects and Implications for Development (UNU, 1990, 153 pages)

Research considerations

		Introduction and purpose
		Underlying assumptions or hypotheses for research in positive deviance
		Relationship of positive-deviance research to epidemiological methods
		Definition of terms and specification of research goals
		Three-stage research and pilot-project model
		Research design for stage 1
		A conceptual framework for the design of positive-deviance studies
		Important variables: results of the positive-deviance mail survey
		Micro-level variables measuring caretaker-child interactions
		Variables measuring maternal characteristics and socio-cultural support
		Measuring growth
		Controlling for socio-economic status
		Limiting the number of covariables: restriction by age and topic
		Rationale for existing behaviours and social structures
		Timeline for change
		Nutrition and infection
		Management of multidisciplinary teams

Underlying assumptions or hypotheses for research in positive deviance

The study of positive deviance in young-child nutrition rests on the following assumptions:

1. In impoverished or less socio-economically developed communities there exist adaptive parental and child characteristics that distinguish between the households of children whose growth performance is at the top of the distribution and those whose children are malnourished. These characteristics may be behavioural, social, psychological, or physiological.

2. Certain of these characteristics will be useful for developing:

screening indicators to identify infants at high risk of malnutrition and ill-health, and specific low-cost targeted interventions or social services for these infants and their families;
nutrition and health education "messages teaching and reinforcing adaptive, protective behaviours and social characteristics among the population as a whole;
technologically appropriate interventions and approaches to service delivery that integrate existing adaptive wisdom into the structure and orientation of programmes;
social policies and legislation to protect mothers and children.