Work

Predictors of young people’s anti-vaccine attitudes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: The objective of this research was to explore how attitudes to science and scientists may be related to anti-vax positions and whether the psychological trait known as Need for Closure may influence the relationship between any or all of these attitudes. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1128 young people aged 18-25 living in Italy during the COVID-19 health crisis. Based on the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, which allowed the extraction of a three-factor solution (scepticism about science, unrealistic expectations about science and anti-vax postures), we tested our hypotheses by means of a structural equation model. We found that anti-vax positions are strongly correlated with sceptical views of science, while unrealistic expectations about science affect attitudes to vaccination only indirectly. Either way, Need for Closure emerged as a key variable in our model, as it significantly moderates the effect of both factors on anti-vax positions.

Source: Public Understanding of Science

DOI: 10.1177/09636625231179830

Authors: Lucrezia Crescenzi-Lanna, Riccardo Valente, Silvia Cataldi, Fabrizio Martire

Institutions: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Sapienza University of Rome

Language: English

Topic: Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy

Subfield: Health

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades