Researchers found that five core values—safety, knowledge, trust, humanity, and autonomy—shape how minority parents approach pediatric vaccination.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Core Decision Values: Researchers identified safety, knowledge, trust, humanity, and autonomy as the five primary values parents use to evaluate COVID-19 vaccination for their children.
- Impact of Systemic Racism: The study suggests that experiences with systemic racism and historical inequities in healthcare access significantly influence vaccination perceptions and decisions among minority families.
- Clinical Communication Strategies: Addressing these specific core values during patient-provider interactions could help inform more effective public health campaigns and increase vaccine confidence in the doctor’s office.
A study published in Vaccine: X identifies five core values that drive COVID-19 vaccination decisions among Black and Hispanic parents, providing a framework for healthcare providers to improve vaccine confidence in minority communities.
Researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine found that persistently low rates of COVID-19 vaccination in Black and Hispanic children often stem from parental hesitancy, even when the parents themselves have been vaccinated. Through qualitative interviews, the team derived five core values used by parents to appraise the vaccine: safety, knowledge, trust, humanity, and autonomy.
“In talking with parents from minoritized communities, we found that when these core values were upheld, parents expressed more confidence in the vaccine, while if the values were threatened, there was greater skepticism and hesitancy,” said Andrea Spencer, MD, vice chair for research at the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
The Five Core Values
The study describes the core values as specific lenses through which parents view medical interventions:
- Safety: Parents weighed the perceived risks of the vaccine against the risks of the virus itself.
- Knowledge: There was a expressed need to “know for sure” about the vaccine’s effects before proceeding.
- Trust: Decisions were influenced by the perceived motives of healthcare providers, the government, and pharmaceutical companies.
- Humanity: Parents sought to be treated as individuals with unique concerns rather than just a number in a public health initiative.
- Autonomy: A strong desire to make an independent, uncoerced decision for their child was central to the process.
Influence of Systemic Racism
The research team interviewed 20 caregivers of children aged 5 to 11 years old. The participants were 62% non-Hispanic Black and 29% Hispanic. While all caregivers had received at least one dose of the vaccine themselves, only 62% of their children were vaccinated against COVID-19.
The findings indicate that these values are not held in a vacuum but are shaped by broader societal factors.
“Our data suggest that the core values we describe are particularly shaped and amplified by experiences of systemic racism among racial and ethnic minoritized families,” said Spencer. “Historical harms, inequities in healthcare access, and cultural mistrust influenced their perceptions and decisions about vaccination.”
The researchers suggested that public health policies and clinical discussions that respect these values may be more effective and equitable.
“Vaccination policies implemented according to these values could not only be more equitable and effective but also could build trust in public health systems,” said Spencer.
