Attitudes and the lived experiences of vaccine hesitant parents: A mixed-methods study

ABSTRACT

Vaccine hesitancy (VH) refers to refusing or delaying vaccinations for reasons other than medical contraindications. Despite the significant benefits vaccines have provided since their invention, VH rates are still high worldwide. This concurrent mixed method study explored attitudes, and the lived experiences of vaccine hesitant parents of children of ages 0 to 18 who sought health care services in a Federal Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. Quantitively results of this study revealed seven attributes of vaccine-hesitant parents (1) the belief that children should get fewer shots at the same time, (2) concerns about children developing severe side effects from shots, (3) concerns about the safety of vaccines, (4) concerns that shots may not prevent the illnesses they are intended to prevent, (5) children get more shots than necessary, (6) illnesses that shots prevent are not severe, and (7) children should get immunity by getting sick rather than getting shots. Qualitative findings revealed four themes about the lived experiences of vaccine hesitant parents (1) vaccines are not safe, (2) vaccines are not necessary, (3) parents are not well informed about the vaccines, and (4) children get too many shots. Recommendations for future research include conducting this study in a similar setting using the same methodology in the absence of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducting the study in more diversified settings to test the reproducibility of this study's findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)