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Black‐and‐white thinking and conspiracy beliefs prevent parents from vaccinating their children against COVID ‐19
Author(s) -
Iannello Paola,
Colautti Laura,
Magenes Sara,
Antonietti Alessandro,
Cancer Alice
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.3999
Subject(s) - worry , vaccination , psychology , pandemic , covid-19 , population , developmental psychology , medicine , immunology , psychiatry , environmental health , anxiety , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Abstract Understanding predictors of parents' willingness to vaccinate their children appears fundamental to promote vaccine acceptability, especially in a pandemic scenario. The present study aimed to investigate the role of conspiracy beliefs and absolutist thinking in parental attitude toward COVID‐19 vaccine, and the predictive role of parents' individual differences on decisions against children's vaccination. An online survey was administered to 415 parents of children aged 5–11, at the very beginning of the vaccination targeting this population in Italy. Results showed that absolutism predicted the tendency to believe in conspiracies, associated with a negative attitude toward the COVID‐19 vaccine administration to children. Moreover, mothers were less willing to vaccinate children and parents of children aged 5–7 were more hesitant, or even against vaccination, than parents of older children. Finally, the worry about consequences of COVID‐19 infection on children's health facilitated vaccine adherence. These findings contribute to deepening mechanisms regarding the vaccine acceptability.