Family Communication Patterns and Parents' Intentions to Vaccinate Their Child Against COVID-19

Area of Science:

• Family Communication
• Health Behavior
• Vaccine Hesitancy

Background:

• Parental health decisions for children are complex.
• Understanding factors influencing these decisions is crucial, especially for vaccines.
• Family communication patterns may play a significant role.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the relationship between family communication patterns and parental COVID-19 knowledge.
• To investigate the association between family communication and vaccine confidence.
• To determine how family communication influences intentions to vaccinate children against COVID-19.

Main Methods:

• Online survey administered to 702 parents across 4 US states (Ohio, New York, Georgia, Texas) in March 2021.
• Utilized family communication patterns theory to assess conversational and conformity orientations.
• Measured parental knowledge of COVID-19, vaccine confidence, and child vaccination intentions.

Main Results:

• Higher conversation orientation in families was positively linked to greater COVID-19 knowledge.
• Increased COVID-19 knowledge and vaccine confidence were associated with higher intentions to vaccinate children.
• The impact of conformity subscales on these outcomes showed mixed results.

Conclusions:

• Family communication, particularly open conversation, is a key factor in shaping parental COVID-19 knowledge and vaccine confidence.
• Promoting open family dialogue may enhance vaccine acceptance for children.
• Family communication patterns theory offers valuable insights for public health interventions in complex health decision-making scenarios.