What influences representations on vaccines and children’s vaccination? A psychosocial study on mothers’ representations, values, and decision-making styles

Abstract

Although the complex reasons underlying parents’ decision whether to vaccinate their children have been largely unraveled, a socio-cognitive perspective on the representational field of vaccination is missing. This study is a contribution to fill such a gap. A sample of 309 Portuguese mothers with children aged 0-6 years answered a self-administered questionnaire. Results show that psychosocial variables such as the number of children modulate mothers’ representations of vaccination as a matter of freedom of choice and preference for natural immunity, while age of children and having (or not) searched for information in-fluence their confidence in vaccines. Also, results show that representations related to freedom of choice, preference for natural immunity, and conspiracy theories are positively predicted by individualism values and a dependent decision-making style, whereas confidence in vaccines is positively associated with uni-versalism values and a rational decision-making style. We discuss the implications of the socio-cognitive dynamics organizing mothers’ representations about vaccines and vaccination for the understanding of behaviors about vaccines and the development of tailored measures for vaccination promotion.