Are you willing to risk it? The relationship between risk, regret, and vaccination intent

Medically unsupported concerns pertaining to the safety and necessity of childhood vaccines may have contributed to a proportion of American parents opting against measles, mumps, and rubella vaccinations. Given this, the present investigation sought to explore the influence of perceived severity, perceived likelihood, and anticipated regret on surrogate vaccination decision-making among parents of young children. An online survey was distributed to 110 parents with unvaccinated children between 0 and 23 months of age. Significant correlations were found among focal study constructs. Anticipated regret was found to fully mediate the link between risk perceptions and vaccination intentions. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings were discussed.