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A Culturally Tailored Narrative Decreased Resistance to COVID-19 Vaccination Among Latinas
Ashley Phelps1, Yulissa Rodriguez-Hernandez2, Sheila T Murphy1
1Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 5116University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Purpose:
This study tested the relative efficacy of a culturally tailored dramatic narrative promoting COVID-19 vaccination in changing attitudes and behavioral intent among unvaccinated Latinas compared to a nonnarrative control containing similar information.
Design:
A pretest-posttest experimental study with unvaccinated Latinas randomly assigned to watch either a dramatic narrative featuring Latina characters countering prevalent myths about COVID-19 vaccines or a nonnarrative film containing similar information (control condition).
Setting:
The experiment was hosted online with the films embedded in the survey.
Participants:
Three-hundred-ninety adult Latinas living in the United States (mean age = 33.4 years; SD = 11.2) who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 despite being eligible. At pretest, 57.7% were hesitant and 42.3% were resistant (refusing) to get vaccinated.
Measures:
Self-reported measures of engagement with the film, COVID-19 vaccine attitudes, and intent to get vaccinated within 30 days at pretest and posttest.
Results:
Resistant women were significantly more engaged in the dramatic narrative than the nonnarrative control film (P = .03). Being engaged in a film predicted more positive post-viewing attitudes toward the vaccine (b = .28; P < .001) and higher intent to get vaccinated (b = 2.34, P < .001).
Conclusion:
Using culturally tailored stories to promote healthy behaviors such as vaccination can be an effective way of reaching resistant audiences.
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