Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Public attitudes toward vaccination: Interactions between message frames, parenting attitudes, and cultural worldviews

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AbstractThere have been a number of recent controversies surrounding vaccine adverse events (VAE) (e.g., measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism). There has been speculation that the typical vaccination promotion message, with its focus on individual risk of vaccine-preventable disease, may have the unintended effect of reinforcing parents' concerns about the risk of their child experiencing a VAE. There has also been speculation that a message that emphasizes the societal benefits of vaccination may not have this effect. In this project the co-Principal Investigator will use a framing paradigm to investigate which kinds of messages effectively convey the importance of childhood vaccination and community immunity in the promotion of children?s health and, ultimately, healthy child development. The effects of individual- and community-framed vaccination messages on people?s attitudes toward both vaccination uptake and vaccination policy will be compared and the ways in which individual characteristics, like cultural worldviews and parenting attitudes, interact with the message frames to produce particular attitudes toward vaccination uptake and vaccination policy examined. The goal of this research is to contribute to efforts to align personal decision-making about vaccination and vaccination policy with the current scientific understanding of vaccination and its importance to health child development.This research will establish a critical link between existing theory of risk perception and existing understanding of how parenting attitudes influence child development. In terms of broader impacts, findings from this research will have implications for efforts to promote vaccination decision-making and policy in a manner that reflects the scientific consensus on vaccination. More broadly, this research can inform the development of communications that promote the well-being of children and families.