Prevention and Intervention of Stunting Through Mother's Empowerment

Abstract

Introduction: It is important to reduce stunting as early as possible to avoid long-term detrimental impacts, namely stunting children's growth and development. This research aims to provide training and mentoring methods to mothers of toddlers, both in classical form and direct practice. Method: Stage I developed a model of maternal empowerment in preventing and dealing with stunting in toddlers using a survey with a cross sectional design. The second stage of model implementation uses Quasi Experimental with pretest and posttest in the control group. The third stage uses experimental research with The Posttest–Only Control Group Design to determine the effect. Results: maternal empowerment and maternal characteristics greatly influence stunting. The empowerment t-statistic value is 3.231 and mother's characteristics are 7.523, which is greater than the t-table value of 1.96. Empowerment has an indirect impact through exclusive breastfeeding, but maternal characteristics indirectly influence knowledge, children's physical health, nutritional status, while family support indirectly influences stunting through exclusive breastfeeding and motivation. Conclusion: socio-economic as part of the mother's characteristics determines the mother's ability to make efforts to prevent and treat stunting. Family support increases mothers' motivation to provide exclusive breastfeeding which has a special impact on the incidence of stunting in children.