Journal Article

COVID-19 vaccine perceptions and hesitancy amongst parents of school-aged children during the pediatric vaccine rollout

Ryan, Kathleen, Byrne, Alexandra, Thompson, Lindsay A., Filipp, Stephanie L.

2022

Overview

•COVID-19 vaccine uptake amongst adolescents is lower than pre-rollout intent.•Black parents and Hispanic adolescents have lower rates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake.•The greatest predictor of child COVID-19 vaccine acceptance is parent COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.•The most common reason for vaccine hesitancy is fear of long-term side effects.•Medical providers are the most trusted source of information amongst parents. The United States has the highest number of total cases and deaths due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide (Johns Hopkins COVID Dashboard, 2021). Despite COVID-19 vaccine availability, uptake in the United States has been slow and vaccine hesitancy has been a significant barrier to achieving widespread vaccine uptake. Understanding determinants of vaccine acceptance is essential to implement successful population health interventions to increase COVID-19 vaccination. We developed an anonymous cross-sectional parent survey to assess factors associated with parent and child COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy during the initial pediatric vaccine rollout amongst adolescents 16 years +. The survey was sent via email to 25,308 parents registered to the Alachua County Public School System in May 2021 and remained active until July 2021. There were a total of 2,620 survey responses. Overall, 31.5 % of parents with children ages 16 years + reported their child had received the COVID-19 vaccine, 65.2 % reported their (eligible) child had not received the vaccine, and 3.3 % reported their child was scheduled for the vaccine. A majority of parents (60.9 %) reported they planned to vaccinate all of their children once the COVID-19 vaccine was available for their children’s age. COVID-19 vaccine uptake in adolescents ages 16 + reported by Hispanic and White parents was two times higher than that reported by Black parents. Parent COVID-19 and influenza vaccine uptake were associated with increased child COVID-19 vaccination. The most commonly reported reasons why parents chose not to have their child vaccinated against COVID-19 were concerns about long–term negative side effects (75.7 %) and a negative reaction (56.5 %). Medical providers were reported as the most trusted source of information. Our study provides insight into determinants of vaccine acceptance, vaccine hesitancy, and trusted sources of information that may be helpful to develop targeted interventions to increase youth COVID-19 vaccination.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Adolescent / Adolescents / Age / Allergy and Immunology / Availability / Child / Children / Children & youth / Coronavirus / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - prevention & control / COVID-19 infection / COVID-19 Vaccines / Cross-Sectional Studies / e-mail / Elementary schools / Families & family life / FDA approval / Health promotion / Hesitancy / Humans / Influenza / influenza vaccines / Influenza Vaccines - therapeutic use / Information sources / Pandemics / Parents / Parents & parenting / Pediatrics / Public health / Public schools / School boards / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Side effects / Survey / Surveys / Teenagers / United States / Vaccination / Vaccine / Vaccine hesitancy / Vaccines / Viral diseases / Youth