College students’ willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccines

Abstract

Objective To assess college students’ willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccines and the factors that influence their decisions. Participants: Traditional (aged 18–23) undergraduate students at a university in central Texas. Methods: An online survey was administered in fall 2020 to 614 students stratified by sex and race/ethnicity. Results: 40.9% of students planned to take the vaccine as soon as possible, 37.1% eventually, 11.4% only if required, and 10.6% did not intend to be vaccinated. Analyses indicated that gender, major/minor, political affiliation, receiving a flu shot in the preceding 12 months, perception of risk for COVID-19, and vaccine hesitancy were all associated with willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccines. Conclusion: Results confirm that no one-size-fits-all approach to promoting COVID-19 vaccination among college students is possible. Instead, administrators interested in increasing vaccine uptake should address concerns of specific groups, while also utilizing the prosocial beliefs of college students (e.g., being vaccinated will protect others).

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• vaccine uptake
• vaccine confidence
• college students

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Texas State University.

Additional information

Funding

This study is funded by Texas State University.