The effects of parents' vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 vaccine literacy on attitudes toward vaccinating their children during the pandemic

PURPOSE: The study was conducted to examine the effects of parents' vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 vaccine literacy on their attitudes toward vaccinating their children during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN AND METHODS: The study was descriptive, cross-sectional, and comparative. The data were collected from 199 parents with children aged 0–18 using a Google Form on social media. In the study, the Parent Introductory Information Form, the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale in Pandemics, and the COVID-19 Vaccine Literacy Scale were used. In the analysis of the data, numbers, percentages, and means were calculated, and the significance test of the difference between the two means and the logistic regression analysis were used. RESULTS: Parents' vaccination hesitancy scale sub-dimensions and COVID-19 vaccine literacy scale sub-dimensions together explain 25.4% of their attitudes toward having their children vaccinated against COVID-19. When the variables were examined individually, it was determined that the sub-dimensions of the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale in Pandemics alone significantly affected their attitudes during the pandemic period (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Parents are hesitant about getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19. Improving vaccine literacy can increase vaccination rates in special groups to overcome vaccine hesitancy.