Published in

SAGE Publications, Journal of Health Psychology, 5(21), p. 781-787, 2014

DOI: 10.1177/1359105314539527

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Are parents more willing to vaccinate their children than themselves?

Journal article published in 2014 by Lion Shahab ORCID, My-Y. Shahab L. Robb K. A. Gardner B. Tang ORCID, Ka A. Robb, Benjamin Gardner ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Policy details
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Risk perception studies have focused on personal risks; yet many decisions are taken for others. Some studies have suggested that parents are especially sensitive to risks to their children. We compared 245 parents’ willingness to vaccinate their child versus themselves in nine hypothetical scenarios relating to influenza strains. Scenarios varied according to non-vaccination risk (low, medium and high) and ‘risk target’ (oneself, one’s child or, as a comparator, one’s elderly parent). Participants were more willing to vaccinate their child (61% acceptance) than themselves (54%) or their parent (56%). Parents may be more risk-sensitive when deciding for their child than for themselves.