Date of Completion

2023

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Biomedical and Health Sciences

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Dr. Kelsey Gleason

Second Advisor

Dr. Susan Kasser

Keywords

COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy, parents, Vermont, survey

Abstract

Objectives: Assess the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Vermont parents of children aged 5-11 and identify the reasons behind COVID-19 vaccination decisions as well as the demographic patterns of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Methods: In October and November of 2022, surveys were advertised to Vermont parents of children aged 5-11 through a local social media platform. The survey asked questions about parents’ vaccination decisions, the reasons behind their decision, and 6 demographic questions. Parents could also opt in to a phone interview at the end of the survey. Microsoft Excel was used to perform descriptive analysis, and R Studio was used to perform Chi-Square tests. Results: 19 parents responded to the survey, and 84.2% had had their child vaccinated against COVID-19. Parents who had vaccinated their child against COVID-19 most often cited concerns about their child infecting others as well as a belief that COVID-19 vaccination is essential to minimizing the impact of COVID-19, while parents who had not vaccinated their child most often reported that they did not see a COVID-19 infection as a threat to their child’s health. The demographic factors most strongly associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were parent age and county of residence. Conclusions: Vermont parents have overall favorable views on vaccinating their children against COVID-19. However, there are still many Vermont parents who are hesitant about vaccinating their child against COVID-19, and the reasons they cited can be incorporated into public health efforts aimed at increasing uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in the 5-11 age group.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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