Full metadata
Title
Negotiating healthy self-government: a grounded theory study of interactions in Arizona's WIC program
Description
Individual behavior change is a goal of many public policies directed at people of low socioeconomic status. Without evidence of behavioral change, these policies cannot be considered a success: a process of co-production where some level of cooperation between the client and program administrators is required to successfully meet program objectives. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), is one example of a co-production design. WIC encourages women to engage in healthy behaviors by providing healthy food along with nutrition education to improve the health status of low-income families. However, while WIC is one of the most studied nutrition programs, little attention has been paid to the nutrition education portion or to interactions between staff members and participants. This research draws on the public policy and administration literature about street-level bureaucrats and co-production, which provides a framework for understanding the purposeful, inter-dependent relationships between front-line service providers and clients. However, neither literature explicates the process of interactions that is expected to lead to client behavior change and co-production. The primary contribution of this research is the creation of a grounded theory that identifies and explains the WIC interaction process as one of "negotiating healthy self-government". Based on analysis of three months of observations of WIC encounters in two clinics, this research finds that participants and staff members enter into tacit and explicit negotiations concerning the degree to which participants should govern their family's nutrition-related behavior. Clients actively shape the interactions by demonstrating their discipline and efforts to feed their families, while staff members refine and reinforce self-governing behaviors through assessing action, and providing advice to ensure behaviors meet recommendations. Finally, participants and staff members distinctly link self-governing behavior to identity: "good mothers" feed their children healthy food and govern their behaviors to meet nutritional recommendations. This research has implications for the study of behavior change promotion in public programs by introducing the concept of identity as a mechanism for governance and explicating the interaction process between front-line service providers and clients
Date Created
2014
Contributors
- Hand, Laura Catherine (Author)
- Catlaw, Thomas J. (Thesis advisor)
- Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam (Committee member)
- Lucio, Joanna (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Topical Subject
- public policy
- Public Administration
- public health
- Co-production
- Grounded theory
- Street-level bureaucracy
- WIC
- Nutrition counseling--Arizona.
- Nutrition counseling
- Social case work--Arizona.
- Social case work
- Social interaction--Arizona.
- Social Interaction
- Behavior modification--Arizona.
- Behavior modification
Resource Type
Extent
viii, 110 p
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Peer-reviewed
No
Open Access
No
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.24996
Statement of Responsibility
by Laura Catherine Hand
Description Source
Viewed on May 28, 2015
Level of coding
full
Note
thesis
Partial requirement for: Ph. D., Arizona State University, 2014
bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-79)
Field of study: Public policy
System Created
- 2014-06-09 02:11:52
System Modified
- 2021-08-30 01:34:52
- 3 years 2 months ago
Additional Formats