ABSTRACT
The paper presents the results of the study on development and standardization of the "COVID-19 Vaccine Attitude Scale" (COVID- 19 VAS) questionnaire. The study sample includes N = 1965 undergraduate, specialist and master students, of which N = 1592 (81%) are women and N = 373 (19%) are men aged 16 to 60 years, mean age M = 24.7, SD = 8.4, Me = 21.0. Study was conducted at Moscow State University of Psychology & Education (MSUPE). The questionnaire structure includes 5 scales identified by the method of exploratory factor analysis: Scale 1 "The benefits of vaccination against COVID-19 for an individual and society", Scale 2 "Fear of incidental effects of vaccination against COVID-19 and distrust of information about the vaccination safety", Scale 3 "Denial of the danger of coronavirus and hope for natural immunity", Scale 4 "Confidence in the serious negative consequences of the coronavirus vaccine" and Scale 5 "Disbelief in the proven international level effectiveness of Russian vaccines". The construct validity of the questionnaire was statistically proved. Confirmatory factor analysis verified satisfactory goodness-of-fit between the empirical data and the questionnaire structure. The scales are moderately intercorrelated, and the directions of the correlations correspond to the expected ones. The high internal reliability of all scales is statistically confirmed with the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Satisfactory convergent validity of the corresponding scales of the "COVID-19 Vaccine Attitude Scale (COVID-19 VAS)" with natural science literacy, intelligence and fear of COVID-19 disease is also confirmed. All correlations are weak, but theoretically expected and explainable. The differential validity is statistically proved. Stanines are calculated. The COVID-19 VAS can be recommended for preparation, realization and evaluation of the effectiveness of educational activities on vaccine prevention against COVID-19 among university students.
ABSTRACT
The paper presents the results of the study on development and standardization of the "COVID-19 Vaccine Attitude Scale” (COVID-19 VAS) questionnaire. The study sample includes N = 1965 undergraduate, specialist and master students, of which N = 1592 (81%) are women and N = 373 (19%) are men aged 16 to 60 years, mean age M = 24.7, SD = 8.4, Me = 21.0. Study was conducted at Moscow State University of Psychology & Education (MSUPE). The questionnaire structure includes 5 scales identified by the method of exploratory factor analysis: Scale 1 "The benefits of vaccination against COVID-19 for an individual and society", Scale 2 "Fear of incidental effects of vaccination against COVID-19 and distrust of information about the vaccination safety", Scale 3 "Denial of the danger of coronavirus and hope for natural immunity”, Scale 4 "Confidence in the serious negative consequences of the coronavirus vaccine” and Scale 5 "Disbelief in the proven international level effectiveness of Russian vaccines”. The construct validity of the questionnaire was statistically proved. Confirmatory factor analysis verified satisfactory goodness-of-fit between the empirical data and the questionnaire structure. The scales are moderately intercorrelated, and the directions of the correlations correspond to the expected ones. The high internal reliability of all scales is statistically confirmed with the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Satisfactory convergent validity of the corresponding scales of the "COVID-19 Vaccine Attitude Scale (COVID-19 VAS)” with natural science literacy, intelligence and fear of COVID-19 disease is also confirmed. All correlations are weak, but theoretically expected and explainable. The differential validity is statistically proved. Stanines are calculated. The COVID-19 VAS can be recommended for preparation, realization and evaluation of the effectiveness of educational activities on vaccine prevention against COVID-19 among university students. © 2022 National Research University Higher School of Economics. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The paper presents the results of the study on development and standardization of the "COVID-19 Vaccine Attitude Scale" (COVID- 19 VAS) questionnaire. The study sample includes N = 1965 undergraduate, specialist and master students, of which N = 1592 (81%) are women and N = 373 (19%) are men aged 16 to 60 years, mean age M = 24.7, SD = 8.4, Me = 21.0. Study was conducted at Moscow State University of Psychology & Education (MSUPE). The questionnaire structure includes 5 scales identified by the method of exploratory factor analysis: Scale 1 "The benefits of vaccination against COVID-19 for an individual and society", Scale 2 "Fear of incidental effects of vaccination against COVID-19 and distrust of information about the vaccination safety", Scale 3 "Denial of the danger of coronavirus and hope for natural immunity", Scale 4 "Confidence in the serious negative consequences of the coronavirus vaccine" and Scale 5 "Disbelief in the proven international level effectiveness of Russian vaccines". The construct validity of the questionnaire was statistically proved. Confirmatory factor analysis verified satisfactory goodness-of-fit between the empirical data and the questionnaire structure. The scales are moderately intercorrelated, and the directions of the correlations correspond to the expected ones. The high internal reliability of all scales is statistically confirmed with the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Satisfactory convergent validity of the corresponding scales of the "COVID-19 Vaccine Attitude Scale (COVID-19 VAS)" with natural science literacy, intelligence and fear of COVID-19 disease is also confirmed. All correlations are weak, but theoretically expected and explainable. The differential validity is statistically proved. Stanines are calculated. The COVID-19 VAS can be recommended for preparation, realization and evaluation of the effectiveness of educational activities on vaccine prevention against COVID-19 among university students.
ABSTRACT
The article presents the findings of a study on the learning format preferences in students of the Moscow State University of Psychology & Education (N=761) in February-March 2022 . Face-to-face learning (FTF) was chosen by 10,8% of stu-dents, blended learning (lectures in distance format, seminars and practical classes in-person) (BL) - 39,7%, distance learning (DL) - 49,5% . There were no differ-ences between the 3 groups by gender and age . In the BL group, compared to the DL group, logical thinking (p=0,001) and verbal intelligence (p=0,003) are bet-ter developed, natural science literacy rates are higher (p=0,018), there is a better understanding of the vaccination benefits against COVID-19 for the individual and society (p=0,016) and less confidence in serious negative consequences of the coro-navirus vaccine (p=0,005) . In the FTF group, compared to the DL group, there is a lower fear of COVID-19 disease (p=0,050) and a higher estimate of the vaccination benefits against COVID-19 for an individual and society (p=0,050) . Cluster analysis using K-means method identified 2 clusters . Cluster 1 includes respondents with more developed logical thinking, verbal intelligence, better natural science literacy, better understanding of the vaccination benefits against COVID-19 for a person and society and less prone to various fears, doubts, underestimation of the danger of coronavirus and distrust of vaccination . In Cluster 1, as compared to Cluster 2, the share of respondents preferring BL prevails (44,4% vs 37,1%), and the share of those who prefer DF is lower (43,8% vs 52,6%);the differences are significant at the trend level. The shares of respondents preferring FTF are practically the same and make up only about 10%. Using the method of logistic regression analysis, 4 statistically significant predictors were identified and a model was built to predict the respondents' choice of the BL vs DL. The older the respondent, the more pronounced his/her fear of COVID-19, the lower his/her logical thinking, and the less confident (s)he is in the vaccination benefits against coronavirus for the individual and society, the more likely (s)he is to prefer DL over BL. Conversely, BL is more likely to be preferred over DL by younger respondents with higher logical reasoning scores, less fear of COVID-19 disease, and greater confidence in the vaccination benefits against coronavirus for the individual and society. The overall prediction accuracy of the model is 60,4%.
ABSTRACT
In a pandemic, science literacy is transformed from a subject of sociological research into a question of the survival of society itself. The attitude of various groups and individuals to vaccination shows the real state of science literacy and reveals significant problems in its formation. The article examines the main stages in the development of the concept of natural science (science) literacy and the importance of critical science literacy in a stream containing conflicting scientific information and expert opinions. The article demonstrates the ineffectiveness of formation strategies without specially organized work on the development of initial pre-science ideas in children and adults. © 2021 Psychological Science and Education. All rights reserved.