Purpose: The purpose of this study was to further evaluate the psychometric properties of the Breastfeeding Personal Efficacy Beliefs Inventory (BPEBI) and to determine its ability to predict women's initiation of and perseverance at breastfeeding.

Background: The health benefits of breastfeeding for children and mothers are well documented and dose-related. Although breastfeeding rates in the United States have increased, they do not approach the Healthy People 2010 goal that 50% of children receive breast milk at 6 months of age. Health promotion behaviors are often predicted by personal efficacy beliefs. These measure one's ability or confidence to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments. The BPEBI was developed to measure breastfeeding self-efficacy. In a previous study content and construct validity, and internal consistence reliability were established.

Sample: One hundred and eleven women from a predominately Caucasian Appalachian state agreed to participate, completed the BPEBI while pregnant, and returned an information sheet six-weeks after their expected due date. Ninety-one women (82%) initiated breastfeeding and 38 women (34%) were breastfeeding at 6 months.

Results: Internal consistency reliability was .92. The variables BPEBI score, age, education, number of children, amount of breast milk received by previous child, and having a breastfeeding sister or close friend were entered into stepwise regression equations. Only the BPEBI score (R²=.11) predicted breastfeeding initiation. BPEFI score (R²=.22) and age (R²=.04) predicted breastfeeding at 6 weeks. BPEBI score (R²=.17) and age (R²=.08) also predicted breastfeeding at 6 months.

Conclusions: The BPEBI demonstrated mild to moderate predictive ability for women's initiation and perseverance at breastfeeding. The results confirmed the internal reliability and previously established factor structure with a second sample of women. Further assessments are recommended with more heterogeneous samples.