Data_Sheet_1_Parental Decision-Making on Childhood Vaccination.pdf

A growing number of parents delay vaccinations or are deciding not to vaccinate their children altogether. This increases the risk of contracting vaccine-preventable diseases and disrupting herd immunity, and also impairs the trust in the capacities of health care systems to protect people. Vaccine hesitancy is related to a range of both psychological and demographic determinants, such as attitudes toward vaccinations, social norms, and trust in science. Our aim is to understand those determinants in parents, because they are a special group in this issue—they act as proxy decision makers for their children, who are unable to decide for themselves. The fact that deciding to vaccinate is a socially forced choice that concerns a child's health makes vaccine-related decisions highly important and involving for parents. This high involvement might lead to parents overemphasizing the potential side effects that they know to be vaccine-related, and by amplifying those, parents are more focused on the potential outcomes of vaccine-related decisions, which can yield specific pattern of the outcome bias. We propose two related studies to investigate factors which promote vaccine hesitancy, protective factors that determine parental vaccination decisions, and outcome bias in parental vaccination intentions. We will explore demographic and psychological factors, and test parental involvement related to vaccine hesitancy using an online battery in a correlation panel design study. The second study is an experimental study, in which we will investigate the moderating role of parents' high involvement in the specific domain of vaccination decision making. We expect that higher involvement among parents, compared to non-parents, will shape the pattern of the proneness to outcome bias. The studies will be conducted across eight countries in Europe and Asia (Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom), rendering findings that will aid with understanding the underlying mechanisms of vaccine hesitancy and paving the way for developing interventions custom-made for parents.

越来越多的家长选择推迟儿童疫苗接种，甚至完全放弃为孩子接种疫苗。此举会提升儿童感染疫苗可预防疾病的风险，破坏群体免疫（herd immunity）屏障，同时削弱公众对医疗保健系统防护能力的信任。疫苗犹豫（vaccine hesitancy）与一系列心理及人口统计学层面的影响因素相关，例如对疫苗接种的态度、社会规范以及对科学的信任程度。本研究旨在厘清家长群体的此类影响因素，原因在于家长是疫苗犹豫议题中的特殊群体：他们作为无法自主决策的儿童的代理决策者，承担疫苗接种相关的决策职责。疫苗接种决策属于关乎儿童健康且受社会规范约束的选择，因此对家长而言，此类与疫苗相关的决策兼具极高重要性与心理卷入性。这种高卷入度可能导致家长过度关注自身已知的疫苗相关潜在不良反应，而通过放大此类风险感知，家长将更聚焦于疫苗接种决策的潜在后果，进而形成特定的结果偏差（outcome bias）模式。本研究拟开展两项关联研究，分别探究推动疫苗犹豫的影响因素、决定家长疫苗接种决策的保护因素，以及家长疫苗接种意向中的结果偏差。第一项研究为相关性追踪面板设计研究，将通过在线成套测评工具，探究人口统计学与心理层面的影响因素，并检验与疫苗犹豫相关的家长卷入度。第二项研究为实验研究，旨在探究家长在疫苗接种决策领域的高卷入度所发挥的调节作用。我们预期，相较于无子女群体，家长的更高卷入度将塑造其结果偏差易感性的表现模式。本研究将在欧洲与亚洲的8个国家（芬兰、德国、中国香港、荷兰、塞尔维亚、斯洛文尼亚、西班牙及英国）开展，所得结果将有助于阐明疫苗犹豫的内在作用机制，并为面向家长群体定制化干预方案的开发铺平道路。