Public opinion and attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination among parents of middle school students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the impact of public opinion on the attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination among parents of middle school students aged 12 to 17 years.@*Methods@#A total of 477 parents of middle school students were recruited online and offline. News reports and virtual online comments on the vaccination of children aged 12 to 17 were provided for them to read, after which all the parents reported their attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination for their child.@*Results@#Totally 73.55% of parents were willing to vaccinate their child. In addition, public opinion showed significant impacts on parental attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination ( F =67.89, P <0.01). After reading positive opinions (4.02±0.91), parental willingness to vaccinate was significantly higher than other comment conditions; Under the influence of negative opinions (2.56±0.88), parents willingness to child vaccination was significantly lower than other opinion groups; There was no significant difference ( P =0.77) between the neutral opinion group (3.71±0.79) and the control group (3.68±0.81).@*Conclusion@#The attitude towards child COVID-19 vaccination among parents of middle school students might be influenced by public opinions. Guidance on public opinion is key for child COVID-19 vaccination improvement.