Development and validation of the treatmentself-regulation questionnaire assessing healthcare professionals’ motivation for flu vaccination (TSRQ-Flu)

Abstract

Objective: We use self-determination theory to extend the conceptual understanding of flu vaccine hesitancy among health professionals. The scale sheds light on the role played by motivational factors above and beyond traditional cognitive factors such as biased risk judgements and health beliefs. Design: Across five phases using data from 718 healthcare professionals we establish factor structure, reliability, discriminant, convergent, criterion-related, incremental validity, and measurement invariance of the Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire assessing healthcare professionals' motivation for flu vaccination scale (TSRQ-Flu). Main Outcome Measures: In addition to the four factors of the TSRQ-Flu (autonomous, introjection, external and amotivation regulations), we assess intentions to vaccinate, past vaccination behaviour and validate the scale using measures of cognitive empowerment, vaccine attitudes and social desirability. Results: Our findings indicate that the newly developed 11-item scale is distinct from and contributes over and beyond other psychosocial measures of flu vaccination intentions and can be used to understand the motivation of both vaccinated and not-vaccinated healthcare professionals. Conclusion:This new scale has the potential to make a marked change in the conceptualisation of the roots of vaccine hesitancy among healthcare professionals and aid healthcare managers in developing evidence-based interventions to promote vaccination among their staff.

Predicting vaccine uptake during COVID-19 crisis: A motivational approach

“…Autonomous motivation denotes high volitional commitment to vaccination because the reasons for vaccine uptake have been internalized and fully endorsed. Although the differential predictive role of autonomous and controlled motivation has been well-established for various recurrent health behaviors (e.g., [23] , [30] , prior work on vaccine acceptance from the SDT-perspective is limited [9] , [20] .…”

Internal and External Motivations and Risk Perception toward COVID-19 Vaccination in Adolescents in the U.S.

“…Risk perception is a particularly important influence on adolescent health behavior, as younger populations tend to underweight negative health outcomes [ 26 ], and thus decline vaccination under the false pretense that they are at a lower risk of infection or symptom severity than adults [ 27 ], notwithstanding evidence of similar COVID incidence rates [ 1 ]. Given lagging vaccination rate in adolescents and increased variant transmissibility, understanding adolescent motivators is especially relevant [ 28 , 29 ]. Extant health behavior models have been applied to adolescents’ willingness to participate in other COVID-19 preventative behaviors, such as mask wearing and social distancing [ 30 , 31 , 32 ], yet there is a lack of research empirically investigating adolescents’ drivers of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance [ 14 , 27 ].…”

The moderating effect of autonomy on promotional health messages encouraging healthcare professionals’ to get the influenza vaccine.

“…This provided a baseline measure of behavioral intention to vaccinate. Next, participants were given the 11-item TRSQ-Flu Scale (Moon et al, under review), which assessed healthcare professionals’ motivation toward getting the flu vaccination. The scale captures four regulations of autonomy: autonomous (α = .936, e.g., “I personally believe that having the flu vaccine will protect my health”); introjection (α = .854, e.g., “I would feel bad about myself if I didn’t get the flu jab”); external (α = .666, e.g., “I want my line-manager to think I’m a good employee.”); and amotivation (α =.727, “It is easier to do what I’m told than to think about it.”).…”

“…Furthermore, higher feelings of choice, coupled with a positive instrumental attitude, significantly increased medical students’ intentions to get vaccinated against the flu (Lehmann et al, 2015). More recently, we used self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) to develop a measure of the need for autonomy in healthcare professionals’ flu vaccine decisions (Moon et al, under review). Across a sample of 718 healthcare professionals, autonomous motivation was the strongest predictor of past vaccination behavior as well as future behavioral intention, beyond other more typical determinants, such as perceived benefits and risks associated with vaccination.…”