Mitigating Parental Vaccine Hesitancy: The Moderating Role of Perceived Prevalence of COVID-19 Vaccination

This study aims to identify a strategy to reduce parental vaccine hesitancy by examining the moderating role of the perceived prevalence of COVID-19 children’s vaccination in the relationship between perceived vaccine risk and parental vaccine hesitancy. We conducted a survey in August 2022 in a southwestern US city. Participants included parents of children under age 12 living in the city (N = 113). We first visited two local childcare centres to recruit participants. To maximise the sample size, we then recruited additional participants from local Facebook parent groups. We found that perceived vaccine risk was positively associated with parental vaccine hesitancy, but the perceived prevalence of children’s vaccination was not significantly associated with vaccine hesitancy. Importantly, results indicated that the perceived prevalence of children’s vaccination moderated the relationship between perceived vaccine risk and parental vaccine hesitancy. For parents who perceived that vaccinating children against COVID-19 was prevalent, perceived vaccine risk did not significantly impact their hesitancy. This study contributes to expanding the existing knowledge about vaccine hesitancy and helps inform targeted interventions and health communication strategies to effectively address vaccine hesitancy among parents of young children. Highlighting the prevalence of children’s vaccination is especially effective in high-risk, uncertain contexts involving new technology.