Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul;45(7):665-673.
doi: 10.1177/01939459231170981. Epub 2023 Apr 24.

Decision-Making about COVID-19 Vaccines among Health Care Workers and Their Adolescent Children

Lisa N Mansfield  1   2 , Kristen Choi  3   4   5 , Jeanne R Delgado  1   6 , Mayra Macias  3 , Corrine Munoz-Plaza  3 , Bruno Lewin  7 , David Bronstein  7 , John Chang  3 , Katia Bruxvoort  3   8
Affiliations

Decision-Making about COVID-19 Vaccines among Health Care Workers and Their Adolescent Children

Lisa N Mansfield et al. West J Nurs Res. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Health care workers promote COVID-19 vaccination for adolescent patients, and as parents, may influence their own children to get vaccinated. We conducted virtual, semi-structured qualitative interviews with vaccinated health care workers and their adolescent children to explore their decision-making process for COVID-19 vaccination. In total, 21 health care workers (physicians, nurses, and medical staff) and their adolescent children (N = 17) participated in interviews. The following three themes described parent-adolescent decision-making for COVID-19 vaccination: (1) family anticipation and hesitation about COVID-19 vaccine approval; (2) parents' or adolescents' choice: the decision maker for adolescent COVID-19 vaccination; and (3) leveraging one's vaccination status to encourage others to get vaccinated. Nurses encouraged adolescent autonomy in decisions for COVID-19 vaccination while physicians viewed vaccination as the parent's decision. Health care workers and their adolescent children used role-modeling to motivate unvaccinated peers and may model their decision-making process for adolescent COVID-19 vaccination with their own children to support their patients' and parents' vaccine decisions.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccination; adolescent health; family decision-making; immunizations; vaccine behaviors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Dr. Bruxvoort received research support from Dynavax, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Moderna, Pfizer, and Seqiurs, unrelated to this study. All other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

References

    1. Marks KJ, Whitaker M, Anglin O, et al.. Hospitalizations of children and adolescents with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19—COVID-NET, 14 states, July 2021–January 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022;71(7):271-278. doi:10.15585/MMWR.MM7107E4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ortaliza J, Amin K, Cox C. COVID-19 leading cause of death ranking: Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. Peterson-KFF. Published November 10, 2022. https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-leading-cause-of-deat.... Accessed January 26, 2023.
    1. McGrew S, Taylor HA.Adolescents, parents, and Covid-19 vaccination—who should decide? N Engl J Med. 2022;386(2):e2. doi:10.1056/nejmp2116771. - DOI - PubMed
    1. NCIRD Division of Viral Diseases. Stay Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines Including Boosters | CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html?.... Accessed January 25, 2023.
    1. Hause AM, Gee J, Baggs J, et al.. COVID-19 vaccine safety in adolescents aged 12–17 years—United States, December 14, 2020–July 16, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2021;70(31):1053-1058. doi:10.15585/MMWR.MM7031E1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances