Nurses' attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination for their children are highly influenced by partisanship, a new study finds

Filip Viskupič, Assistant Professor of Political Science, South Dakota State University and David Wiltse, Associate Professor of Political Science, South Dakota State University, The Conversation on Dec 2, 2022

Published in Health & Fitness

Increasing vaccination rates among children will also protect the most vulnerable members of society, such as older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Nevertheless, some parents continue to resist vaccinating their children.

Our study shows that parents make COVID-19 vaccination decisions for the entire family. We found that nurses who received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine are more likely to vaccinate their children and adolescents. However, the nurses who haven’t received a booster dose are far less likely to vaccinate their children.

Our findings align with other research carried out by ourselves and others that shows the strong influence of partisan self-identification on COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors.

Other studies we’ve done show that Republicans are less likely than Democrats to receive a COVID-19 vaccination and are less likely to support mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. We also found that nurses who identify as Republican are less likely to receive a COVID-19 booster dose.

Our study joins a growing body of work that seeks to explore the factors behind COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health care workers. Other studies have linked race and ethnicity, as well as trust in government, physicians and pharmaceutical companies, to the attitudes of health care workers toward COVID-19 vaccination.

Given the politicization of the pandemic and the erosion of trust in authorities, it’s important that messages encouraging the vaccination of children come from trusted sources.

Our previous research suggests that religious leaders can be effective messengers regarding COVID-19 vaccine uptake. In the future, we plan to investigate whether endorsements from trusted community leaders could convince parents to vaccinate their children.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Filip Viskupič, South Dakota State University and David Wiltse, South Dakota State University. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.