Premium
Belief correlations with parental vaccine hesitancy: Results from a national survey
Author(s) -
Matthews Luke J.,
Nowak Sarah A.,
Gidengil Courtney C.,
Chen Christine,
Stubbersfield Joseph M.,
Tehrani Jamshid J.,
Parker Andrew M.
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1111/aman.13714
Subject(s) - demographics , religiosity , humanities , multivariate analysis , psychology , multivariate statistics , demography , social psychology , sociology , statistics , mathematics , philosophy
We conducted a nationally representative survey of parents’ beliefs and self‐reported behaviors regarding childhood vaccinations. Using Bayesian selection among multivariate models, we found that beliefs, even those without any vaccine or health content, predicted vaccine‐hesitant behaviors better than demographics, social network effects, or scientific reasoning. The multivariate structure of beliefs combined many types of ideation that included concerns about both conspiracies and side effects. Although they are not strongly related to vaccine‐hesitant behavior, demographics were key predictors of beliefs. Our results support some of the previously proposed pro‐vaccination messaging strategies and suggest some new strategies not previously considered.