Muscillo Alessio, Lombardi Gabriele, Sestini Elena, Garbin Francesca, Tambone Vittoradolfo, Campanozzi Laura Leondina, Pin Paolo
Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy.
Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications "Giuseppe Parenti", University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy.
Vaccines (Basel). 2023 May 10;11(5):967. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11050967.
To understand and assess vaccine reluctance, it is necessary to evaluate people's perceptions and grasp potential reasons for generic apprehension. In our analysis, we focus on adolescents' impressions towards anti-vaxxer behavior. The aim of the study is to figure out students' opinions about vaccine reluctance, connecting possible explanations that motivate anti-vaxxer decisions with common specific personality traits. We further investigate people's forecasts concerning the evolution of the pandemic. Between 2021 and 2022, we conducted a randomized survey experiment on a sample of high school individuals (N=395) living in different Italian regions. At that time, the vaccination campaign had already been promoted for nearly one year. From the analysis, it emerges that vaccinated people (92%), especially males, tend to be more pessimistic and attribute a higher level of generic distrust in science to anti-vaxxers. The results show that family background (mother's education) represents the most influential regressor: individuals coming from less educated families are less prone to attribute generic distrust and distrust of vaccines as principal reasons for vaccine reluctance. Similarly, those who rarely use social media develop a minor tendency to believe in a generic pessimism of anti-vaxxers. However, concerning the future of the pandemic, they are less likely to be optimistic toward vaccines. Overall, our findings shed light on adolescents' perceptions regarding the factors that influence vaccine hesitancy and highlight the need for targeted communication strategies to improve vaccination rates.
为了理解和评估疫苗犹豫情绪，有必要评估人们的看法并把握普遍担忧的潜在原因。在我们的分析中，我们聚焦于青少年对反疫苗行为的印象。该研究的目的是弄清楚学生们对疫苗犹豫情绪的看法，将促使反疫苗决策的可能解释与常见的特定人格特质联系起来。我们还进一步调查了人们对疫情演变的预测。在2021年至2022年期间，我们对居住在意大利不同地区的395名高中生样本进行了一项随机调查实验。当时，疫苗接种运动已经开展了将近一年。从分析中可以看出，接种过疫苗的人（92%），尤其是男性，往往更悲观，并且认为反疫苗者对科学的普遍不信任程度更高。结果表明，家庭背景（母亲的教育程度）是最具影响力的回归变量：来自教育程度较低家庭的个体不太倾向于将普遍不信任和对疫苗的不信任视为疫苗犹豫的主要原因。同样，很少使用社交媒体的人不太倾向于相信反疫苗者普遍存在悲观情绪。然而，关于疫情的未来，他们对疫苗不太可能持乐观态度。总体而言，我们的研究结果揭示了青少年对影响疫苗犹豫情绪因素的看法，并强调了制定有针对性的沟通策略以提高疫苗接种率的必要性。
