Tailoring of Vaccine-Focused Messages: Moral Foundations and Disease Salience - Part 1

Vaccination of young children helps protect this population against a variety of diseases. Children are especially at risk for contraction of and complications from diseases due to their vulnerable immune systems. New evidence-based messages are needed to maintain and increase vaccination uptake among this group. An emphasis on different values is related to decisions parents make about vaccines. The purpose of this study is to develop, implement, and evaluate messages that focus on different aspects of values to impact vaccination attitudes among parents of young children.

Parents emphasize different moral foundations when deciding whether or not to vaccinate children. Based on this research, a messaging intervention with parents of children who are 12 years of age or younger will be conducted. These messages will aid in assessment of how different moral foundations impact attitudes towards vaccination and intent to vaccinate.

This study tests the impact of targeted vaccine-focused health messages on vaccine beliefs held by parents of young children and pre-adolescents. The participant's vaccine beliefs will be assessed at baseline. Two weeks later, the participant's moral matrix will be assessed. A vaccine-related message that appeals to the individual's three most or least emphasized moral foundations will then be presented. Immediately afterwards, vaccine beliefs will be assessed to determine the impact of the message.