Department of Strategic Communication, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA.
School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
J Health Commun. 2021 Apr 3;26(4):215-224. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2021.1913677. Epub 2021 Apr 28.
Delaying childhood vaccinations has become a public health threat. Numerous studies have shown that the proliferation of conflicting information about the health effects of childhood vaccinations leads parents to believe misinformation about the outcomes of these vaccinations. To build upon the limited understanding of how conflicting information affects decision-making of health protective behaviors, this study extends and applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in the context of childhood vaccinations. This study integrates perceived uncertainty as an antecedent of the TPB model, and incudes the negative emotions resulting from the uncertainty as a parallel predictor for the model to examine parents' acceptance of and engagement in childhood vaccinations. Drawing from a survey of with parents in the United States (N = 405), we found that both perceived uncertainty and subjective norms are strong predictors of parents' attitudes and perceived control regarding childhood vaccinations. Additionally, our study also proved that affective factors and the other three cognitive components in TPB are equally important on the formation of parents' intentions of childhood vaccinations. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in this study.
推迟儿童疫苗接种已经成为公共卫生威胁。大量研究表明，关于儿童疫苗接种健康影响的相互矛盾的信息大量传播，导致父母相信这些疫苗接种结果的错误信息。为了进一步了解相互矛盾的信息如何影响健康保护行为的决策，本研究在儿童疫苗接种的背景下扩展和应用了计划行为理论（TPB）。本研究将感知不确定性作为 TPB 模型的一个前提，并将不确定性产生的负面情绪作为该模型的平行预测因子，以检验父母对儿童疫苗接种的接受程度和参与程度。本研究通过对美国父母（N=405）的调查发现，感知不确定性和主观规范都是父母对儿童疫苗接种的态度和感知控制的强有力预测因素。此外，我们的研究还证明，情感因素和 TPB 的其他三个认知成分在父母对儿童疫苗接种意愿的形成中同样重要。本文讨论了理论和实践意义。
