Peer-reviewed article

Parental attitudes, beliefs, and experiences related to pediatric COVID-19 vaccination.

Yoonjae Kang, Fan Zhang, Tara M Vogt · 26 Jul 2025

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess parental attitudes, beliefs, and experiences related to pediatric COVID-19 vaccination. METHODS: An online, national survey of 2005 U.S. parents aged 18 and older was conducted during August 17-25, 2023. Parental attitudes and beliefs about pediatric COVID-19 vaccination, receipt of a COVID-19 vaccination recommendation for their child, and reasons for not getting their child vaccinated against COVID-19 were assessed. Factors associated with child's COVID-19 vaccination were also assessed. RESULTS: Less than half (46.1 %) of responding parents strongly or somewhat agreed that COVID-19 vaccine is generally safe for children; agreement was higher among parents of 12-17-year-olds (54.2 %) vs. 0-4-year-olds (35.4 %), children with private (52.8 %) vs. Medicaid/CHIP health insurance (41.0 %), and those living in urban (54.2 %) vs. rural areas (29.8 %) (p-values<0.0001). Approximately 60 % of parents reported that their child's health care provider (HCP) recommended COVID-19 vaccination for their child, with higher proportions reporting a recommendation among those with 12-17-year-olds (73.1 %) vs. 0-4-year-olds (43.1 %) (p-value<0.0001), children with private (65.6 %) vs. Medicaid/CHIP health insurance (58.2 %) (p-value = 0.0013), and those living in urban (67.3 %) vs. rural areas (51.6 %) (p-value<0.0001). The top three reported reasons for not getting their child vaccinated against COVID-19 were 1) worry about serious/unknown long-term health problems from the vaccine (52.8 %), 2) a belief that COVID-19 vaccination is not effective at preventing COVID-19 (36.3 %), and 3) child/family has already had COVID-19 (19.3 %). Parents who had received COVID-19 vaccine themselves were more likely to vaccinate their child against COVID-19 (received bivalent vaccine dose: OR = 25.8 [15.9, 41.7]; received at least one dose, but not bivalent vaccine dose: OR = 11.1 [6.8, 18.2]). CONCLUSIONS: Parental concerns around serious/unknown long-term health problems related to COVID-19 vaccination were observed. In addition, a significant proportion of parents reported not having received a COVID-19 vaccination recommendation. Addressing parents' concerns regarding vaccine safety remains important, especially in rural areas.