Mothers' intentions to vaccinate their children for COVID-19

Shruthi Venkatesh; Alexandra Gill; Lauren Kim; Stacey N Doan

doi:10.3934/publichealth.2023016

Mothers' intentions to vaccinate their children for COVID-19

AIMS Public Health. 2023 Mar 29;10(1):209-218. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2023016. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Shruthi Venkatesh¹, Alexandra Gill², Lauren Kim², Stacey N Doan³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
² Department of Psychological Science, Pomona College, Claremont, CA.
³ Department of Psychological Science, Claremont Mckenna College and Department of Population Sciences, City of Hope National Medical Center.

Abstract

Parents' intentions to vaccinate their children is an important area of investigation in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a growing body of research examining factors that influence parents' vaccine intentions. The current study investigated factors that would influence maternal intent to vaccinate their children for COVID-19, shortly before the CDC approved vaccines for children 11 and younger. We had a sample of n = 176 mothers (Mchildage = 71.63 months, 52% White) from California fill out an online survey during February-April 2021. Our results suggest that perceived COVID-19 threat predicts mothers' intention to vaccinate their children (b = 0.370, p < 0.001), controlling for mothers' age, socioeconomic status, race, and child age. Child age (b = 0.027, p = 0.008), SES (b = 0.396, p = 0.018), and child previous flu shot (b = 0.725, p < 0.001) also positively predicted mothers' intention to vaccinate their children. Results are discussed in light of prior research on maternal vaccine intentions and hesitancy.

Keywords: COVID-19; children; intention to vaccinate; mothers.