Parental motivated helplessness in vaccinating children against COVID-19: Its association with fear, effectiveness and willingness to vaccinate

Mabelle Kretchner, Uri Lifshin, Mario Mikulincer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

According to the motivated helplessness hypothesis, parental feelings of helplessness regarding vaccinating children against COVID-19 may serve a protective function against vaccine fear and hesitancy. Two correlational studies conducted among Israelis (Study 1) and an international sample (Study 2), examined whether self-reported perceived helplessness in vaccinating children may be related to lower vaccine-fear, and higher perceived vaccine-effectiveness, trust in authorities’ recommendations and willingness to vaccinate. Results indicated parents who felt they had no other choice but to vaccinate their children, exhibited less vaccine-fear, higher vaccine-effectiveness and greater intentions to vaccinate. Additionally, the relationships between vaccine-helplessness, vaccine-effectiveness and willingness to vaccinate were partially mediated by vaccine-fear. In Study 2, vaccine-helplessness was found related to higher trust in authorities’ recommendations, which was partially mediated by vaccine-fear. The implications of these findings for research on the psychological function of helplessness in the parental decision-making process of vaccinating children during a pandemic are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1345-1358
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Health Psychology
Volume28
Issue number14
Early online date15 May 2023
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • anxiety
  • fear
  • helplessness
  • hesitancy
  • parental hesitancy
  • threat
  • vaccination
  • vaccine

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