The Role of Family Communication Patterns within COVID-19 Vaccination Messaging

As family communication is significantly related to individuals' health decision-making, it is crucial to tap into the power of this relationship for public health initiatives. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a ripe context in which to explore whether vaccination messaging could be tailored in such a way as to target specific family communication climates to encourage vaccine promotion among family members. Specifically, our study (N = 1,276) designed pro-vaccination messaging tailored based on two types of family communication styles. The relationships of family communication patterns with several dependent variables (i.e., intent to share the message with family, perceptions of message credibility, and self-efficacy for encouraging family members to get vaccinated) were assessed. Vaccination status, age, family member considered by participant, and type of message tailoring presented were considered as moderators. Results indicate a myriad of significant relationships between the various family communication patterns (FCP) orientations and outcome variables and important moderation effects, most notably of vaccination status and family member being considered. The results and discussion of this study highlight the salience of family psychology, relationships, and communication within the context of individuals' health-related decisions. Theoretical insights and translational implications of the study's family-communication-tailored campaign messaging are discussed.