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ABSTRACT
Recently, repeated childhood vaccine scandals shook public confidence in vaccine safety in China. This study explores whether media attention, online discussion, and social trust influence Chinese parents’ risk perception and vaccination intention. Based on data from a Qualtrics panel (N = 354), results indicate that media attention is positively related to social trust and online discussion is positively related to perceived benefits. Additionally, social trust is negatively associated with perceived risk but positively associated with perceived benefits. Social trust is also positively related to general vaccination intention and intention to get domestic vaccines. Further, social trust mediates the relationship between media attention/online discussion and risk perception. Lastly, parents with higher risk perception are less likely to get domestic vaccines, but more likely to get imported vaccines. Perceived benefits also influence vaccination intention.
Notes
1. There are two categories of vaccines in china: category I refer to mandatory vaccines that all children receive for free, which include MMR, Hepatitis B, DPT3, IPV, etc. Category II refers to voluntary vaccines, which parents can choose to pay out of pocket.
2. We compared results from three confirmatory factor analyses. Specifying exposure to news coverage on traditional media and online media as two separate factors or combining online discussion with exposure to news through online media as one factor resulted in worse model fit.