The Role of Family Influence in Shaping Individuals’ Vaccine Attitude

Laura Pasqua Leone , Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)
Emilie Counil, Ined
Daniela Perrotta, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)

Social influence plays a fundamental role in driving behaviours and opinions. Family influence, in particular, has been shown to be highly effective in shaping individual beliefs across various domains. However, few efforts to date have been directed to disentangle the within-family dynamic of opinion formation about vaccination. The aim of my research is to fill this gap, given the fundamental importance of understanding the drivers of vaccine acceptance for public health. To this end, I have identified data from the COVID-19 UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). I plan to leverage multilevel longitudinal analysis methods to disentangle the within-family influences on the COVID-19 vaccination decision across four time points (November 2020, January 2021, March 2021, September 2021). Unique respondents answering in all the four wave of the UKHLS COVID-19, as well as in the main UKHLS 2019 are 8831. The sample comprises 2125 households. Preliminary descriptive analyses reveal that the majority of participants eventually received the vaccine, even if they were initially hesitant. While it is likely that people adjusted their behaviours in response to the enforcement measures in place, the influence of their family circle may have played a pivotal role in facilitating or expediting the decision to accept the vaccine. The results of this study aim to contribute to the investigation of how family influences individuals’ decisions, particularly in matters related to public health, with the ultimate goal of guiding future policymaking.

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 Presented in Session P2. Health, Mortality, Ageing - Aperitivo