A socio-ecological perspective on parents’ intentions to vaccinate their children against COVID-19

INTRODUCTION: Vaccinating children against COVID-19 protects children's health and can mitigate the spread of the virus to other community members. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to use a socio-ecological perspective to identify multi-level factors associated with US parents’ intention to vaccinate their children. METHODS: This study used a longitudinal online cohort. Multinomial logistic regression models assessed socio-ecological predictors of negative and uncertain child COVID-19 vaccination intentions compared to positive intentions. RESULTS: In June 2021, 297 parents were surveyed and 44% reported that they intended to vaccinate their children while 25% expressed uncertainty and 31% did not intend to vaccinate their children. The likelihood of reporting uncertain or negative intention, compared to positive intention to vaccinate their children was higher among parents who had not received a COVID-19 vaccination and those who did not have trusted information sources. Parents who talked to others at least weekly about the COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to endorse uncertain compared to positive vaccine intentions (aRRR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.20–0.93). A sub-analysis identified that parents had significantly higher odds of intending to vaccinate older children compared to younger children (children ages 16–17 years v. 0–4 years OR: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.05–3.84). An additional sub-analysis assessed the stability of parents’ intention to vaccinate their children between March 2021 and June 2021 (N=166). There was transition within each intention group between the study periods; however, symmetry and marginal homogeneity test results indicated that the shift was not statistically significant. Parents expressing uncertainty in March 2021 were the most likely to change their intention, with 24% transitioning to positive intention and 23% to negative intention in June 2021. CONCLUSION: Study findings suggest that programs to promote vaccination uptake should be dyadic and work to promote child and parent vaccination. Peer diffusion strategies may be particularly effective at promoting child vaccination uptake among parents expressing uncertainty.