COVID-19 Vaccine for Children: Vaccination Willingness of Parents and Its Associated Factors—A Network Analysis

Abstract

Different COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for underage children, so parents and caregivers currently face the decision of whether to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 or not. Due to the rather moderate vaccine acceptance among parents across different countries, the objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between different psychological, demographic, and behavioral factors related to the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine for underage children among parents. In particular, vaccination attitudes, whether parents have been vaccinated against COVID-19 themselves, COVID-19 fear, attitude towards COVID-19 policy measures, governmental trust, subjective level of information, perceived risk of disease progression, and perceived risk of vaccine side effects were the variables of interest. The study adopted a cross-sectional study design, and the sample consisted of 2405 participants. A network analysis was conducted to investigate the associations and interconnection among these variables. The results showed that, in particular, compliance, confidence in the safety of vaccines, whether parents have been vaccinated against COVID-19 themselves, trust in the governmental system, fear of COVID-19, and the parents’ age were directly related to the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine for children. To increase compliance and confidence in the vaccines’ safety among parents, promotion campaigns should provide more information concerning the vaccines’ safety, particularly for younger parents who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 themselves.

COVID-19 Vaccine for Children: Determinants and Beliefs Contributing to Vaccination Decision of Parents in Germany 2021/2022

“…Furthermore, previous results indicated that parents who were COVID-19 immunized were also willing for their children to receive the vaccine. This finding is consistent with other results in the literature [ 25 , 26 , 36 , 57 , 58 ]. Fittingly, there was a very strong positive correlation between parents’ perceived importance of vaccination as protection against other infections and the COVID-19 vaccination willingness ( r = 0.734; p adj < 0.05).…”

“…Except for gender, residence area, DT, and PHQ-8, all determinants showed significant associations with vaccination willingness in this study. In line with previous research, significant correlations were exhibited between vaccination willingness and educational level, marital status, and age [ 25 , 26 , 36 , 47 , 48 ]. The correlation between age and COVID-19 vaccination willingness was found to be moderate ( r = 0.208; p adj < 0.05).…”

“…Regarding SARS-CoV-2 politics perceptions, determinants showed moderate and strong associations with vaccination willingness (see Table 4 ). Prior investigations have demonstrated associations between governmental trust and vaccine hesitancy and between the subjective level of COVID-19 knowledge and vaccine uptake during the pandemic [ 36 , 47 , 48 , 53 , 59 , 60 , 61 ]. This study came to a different conclusion because participants overall had high subjective levels of COVID-19 knowledge and low governmental trust.…”

“…Other factors may relate to radical protective measures (e.g., lockdowns), fast-moving as well as far-reaching policy decisions, political polarization, and misinformation about vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 23 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. In this context, recent studies also referred to trust in authorities and government, anxiety, and the mental burden of parents and children and investigated the role of these factors in decisions about a potential COVID-19 vaccination uptake [ 28 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Because the population suffered mental distress during the pandemic, there is a need for more detailed and validated data on the extent to which mental burden impacts COVID-19 vaccination uptake [ 34 ].…”

Investigating the Reasons for Receiving the Second Booster Dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine in Adults and in People with Chronic Medical Conditions in Southern Italy

“…Indeed, being aware that COVID-19 was a severe disease predicts all three outcomes of interest. This is not surprising, since the individual beliefs about COVID-19 disease surely influence the attitude and the decision to get the vaccine as observed in several previous studies from Western countries [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. It should be noted that another key finding was the influence of a higher self-awareness of the risk of infection on a higher perception of the utility of the second booster dose [19,23].…”