Elsevier

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Volume 71, July–August 2023, Pages e70-e74
Journal of Pediatric Nursing

The effects of parents' vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 vaccine literacy on attitudes toward vaccinating their children during the pandemic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2023.04.016Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Vaccine confidence positively influenced parental attitudes toward vaccinating their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Finding the vaccine risky negatively affects the attitudes of parents toward getting their children vaccinated against COVID–19.

  • The attitudes of parents towards the COVID-19 vaccine predict getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19.

  • The parents' health literacy levels predict the attitudes of parents toward getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19.

Abstract

Purpose

The study was conducted to examine the effects of parents' vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 vaccine literacy on their attitudes toward vaccinating their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design and methods

The study was descriptive, cross-sectional, and comparative. The data were collected from 199 parents with children aged 0–18 using a Google Form on social media. In the study, the Parent Introductory Information Form, the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale in Pandemics, and the COVID-19 Vaccine Literacy Scale were used. In the analysis of the data, numbers, percentages, and means were calculated, and the significance test of the difference between the two means and the logistic regression analysis were used.

Results

Parents' vaccination hesitancy scale sub-dimensions and COVID-19 vaccine literacy scale sub-dimensions together explain 25.4% of their attitudes toward having their children vaccinated against COVID-19. When the variables were examined individually, it was determined that the sub-dimensions of the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale in Pandemics alone significantly affected their attitudes during the pandemic period (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Parents are hesitant about getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19. Improving vaccine literacy can increase vaccination rates in special groups to overcome vaccine hesitancy.

Keywords

Vaccine hesitancy
COVID-19
Vaccine literacy
Parent

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