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2023-05-01
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Copyright (c) 2023 Devin Graham, Mark Faries
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The role of trust, hesitancy, and personal autonomy on COVID-19 vaccination behavior
Devin Graham
Student/Author
Mark Faries
Abstract
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the successful development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines has been a primary focus of the United States’ pandemic response. However, dissemination has been highly contingent upon public trust and acceptance of the vaccine, and of those who promote it. Current public health messaging assumes vaccine hesitancy; however, little is known about if and why hesitancy might occur. Two possibilities are examined in the present research: trust and autonomy. Theoretically, public health messaging can risk undermining personal autonomy (Self-Determination Theory), leading to less self-determined motivation and greater distrust. Three forms of motivation for behavioral regulation were considered - identified regulation, introjected regulation, and external regulation. This study aimed to describe the overall levels of vaccine trust and hesitancy within a sample of vaccinated and unvaccinated adults, evaluate mean differences in vaccine trust and hesitancy, respectively, between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, analyze the relationship of autonomous motivation (identified) and other motivation types (external, introjected) with hesitancy and trust, and evaluate mean differences in autonomous motivation (identified) and other motivation types (external, introjected), respectively, between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. The results of this study support concerns that hesitancy and lack of trust are related to poorer vaccination behavior, with the unvaccinated group having significantly higher hesitancy and lower trust than the vaccinated group. Support was also provided for the theoretical conception that more autonomous motivation is related to greater vaccination behavior. These findings should be utilized to consider how public health messaging can be better crafted to support, rather than undermine, personal autonomy when promoting vaccine uptake.
