Parents’ intention to vaccinate their 5-11 years old children with the COVID-19 vaccine: rates, predictors and the role of incentives
Authors: Shmueli Liora 
Published: November 2021

Background

On September 20, 2021, Pfizer announced encouraging effectiveness and safety results from their COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials in 5-11 years old children. This study aims to assess parents’ perceptions and intention to vaccinate their 5-11 years old children and to determine the socio-demographic, health-related and behavioral factors, as well as the role of incentives beyond these factors, in predicting this intention.

Methods

A cross-sectional representative online survey among parents of children aged 5-11 years in Israel (n=1,012). The survey was carried out between September 23 and October 4, 2021, at a critical time, immediately after Pfizer’s announcement. Two multivariate regressions were performed to determine predictors of parents’ intention to vaccinate their 5-11 years old children against COVID-19 in the coming winter and how soon they intend to do so.

Results

Overall, 57% of the participants reported their intention to vaccinate their 5-11 years old children against COVID-19 in the coming winter. This intention was higher for participants over the age of 40. Perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action, as well as two incentives - vaccine availability and receiving a ‘green pass’ - were all significant predictors of this intention. When asked about how soon they intend to vaccinate their 5-11 years old children, 27% of the participants responded immediately; 26% within three months; and 24% within more than three months. Participants having a family member suffering from a chronic disease as well as those whose children were vaccinated against influenza in the previous winter intend to vaccinate their children sooner. Perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action, were all found to be significant predictors of this sense of urgency. Similar to the intention to vaccinate children in the coming winter, while vaccine availability and receiving a ‘green pass’ were found to be positive significant predictors of how soon parents intend to vaccinate their children, other incentives such as monetary rewards or monetary penalties were not found to be significant predictors. Parental concerns centered around the safety of the vaccine (64%), fear of severe side effects (60%), and fear that clinical trials and the authorization process were carried out too quickly (56%).

Conclusions

This study provides up-to-date information on the rates of the intention of parents to vaccinate their 5-11 years old children, how soon they intend to do so, and the predictors of those intentions, which is essential for health policy makers and healthcare providers for planning vaccination campaigns. Moreover, as vaccine safety and side effects were found to be key parental concerns, it is important to release post-approval safety data regarding the vaccine to the public as soon as such is available. Finally, our findings underscore the important role of vaccine accessibility and receiving a ‘green pass’ over other incentives in promoting parents’ intentions to vaccinate their children.