Information Curation among Vaccine Cautious Parents: Web 2.0, Pinterest Thinking, and Pediatric Vaccination Choice

Abstract

To learn about pediatric vaccine decision-making, we surveyed and interviewed US parents with at least one child kindergarten age or younger (N = 53). Through an anthropologically informed content analysis, we found that fully vaccinating parents (n = 33) mostly saw vaccination as routine. In contrast, selective and nonvaccinating parents (n = 20) exhibited the type of self-informed engagement that the health care system recommends. Selective vaccinators also expressed multiple, sometimes contradictory positions on vaccination that were keyed to individual children's biologies, child size, environmental hazards, specific diseases, and discrete vaccines. Rather than logical progressions, viewpoints were presented as assembled collections, reflecting contemporary information filtering and curation practices and the prevalence of collectively experienced and constructed digital "hive" narratives. Findings confirm the need for a noncategorical approach to intervention that accommodates the fluid, polyvalent nature of vaccine reasoning and the curatorial view selectively vaccinating parents take toward information while honoring their efforts at engaged healthcare consumption.

Parents' and informal caregivers' views and experiences of communication about routine childhood vaccination: a synthesis of qualitative evidence

“…Many articles presented findings around the amount of information parents wanted and how they felt about the amount of vaccination information that was available or that they had received (Bond 1998; Berhanel 2000; Evans 2001; Guillaume 2004; Shui 2005; Benin 2006; Fowler 2007; Tickner 2007; Gust 2008; Miller 2008; Austvoll-Dahlgren 2010; Tickner 2010; Bond 2011; Figueiredo 2011; Harmsen 2012; Hussain 2012; Tomlinson 2013; Fadda 2015; Harmsen 2015; Blaisdell 2016; Sobo 2016). …”

Parenting as politics: social identity theory and vaccine hesitant communities

“…While historically this has relied upon physical proximity or tangible relationships, the internet and social media have opened up avenues for geographically disaggregated individuals to connect around ideas and practices (Sobo et al, 2016). We have presented reasonable evidence that reliance on others in the group group processes do matters to vaccine decision-making, which was the first purpose of our critical appraisal of this literature.…”

Vaccine Rejecting Parents’ Engagement With Expert Systems That Inform Vaccination Programs

“…It may not be possible to counter all-encompassing worldviews of corporations that seek to profit through harm-inducting and corrupting governance and healthcare in their mission-head on. One possible answer derives from our reflections on how we and some of our research participants arrive at nuance, supported by research that shows selectively vaccinating parents oscillate between numerous standpoints and tend towards indeterminate positions on vaccination (Sobo et al 2016). We should avoid attempts to drastically re-orient worldviews, given that those initiating them would be distrusted anyway.…”

“…A distrust in big business to look after the concerns of the public-coined the Greedy Bastard Hypothesis by Graham Scambler (2001)-is indicative of a left-wing ideology and "off the grid" philosophy. Rejecting capitalism would fit with our parents' Habitus and their social identities, with vaccine refusal in valued social settings generating bonds and affirmation (Sobo et al 2016). Accordingly, we take seriously the parents' representations of the pharmaceutical industry as a significant driver of the distrust that induces vaccine refusal, and recognize its socio-political elements.…”

“…Brownlie and Howson (2005) argue that "when parents are identifying good reasons to either vaccinate or not, they are acting as bricoleurs, piecing together different knowledges" (226), a troublesome process because there are "good reasons" on both sides of the argument (224). In addition, current research identifies the role of social relationships and identities in vaccination decision-making, emphasizing that refusal is not simply a rejection of an offered benefit, but rather a process through which parents navigate social norms and articulate social inclusion and exclusion in relation to those around them (Sobo 2016). …”