Abstract
Government communication has been playing an important role in mass vaccination to conduct the largest vaccination campaign of the world for COVID-19 and to counter vaccine hesitancy. This study employs the health belief model to examine the association between government communication and the COVID-19 vaccination intention. A survey of Chinese adults (N = 557) was conducted in March 2021, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to estimate the multi-construct relationships. The findings indicate that government communication has both direct positive association with vaccination intention and indirect association with vaccination intention through the mediation of perceived severity, benefits, and barriers. Multi-group comparisons suggest that individuals from private sectors are more easily mobilized to receive COVID-19 vaccination by government communication than those from public sectors. Similarly, the correlation between government communication and the vaccination intention of individuals with a good health status was stronger than that of those with a poor health status. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are further discussed.
Highlights
Vaccine popularization is the most effective method to reduce the spread of an infectious disease
Multi-group comparisons indicate that government communication was more strongly associated with COVID19 vaccination intention for individuals from the private sectors than those from the public sectors
Combining the literature on government communication with discussions on perceptions of individuals based on the health belief model (HBM) model, our results offer several important theoretical and practical implications
Summary
Vaccine popularization is the most effective method to reduce the spread of an infectious disease. This study distinguishes the external cues of government communication It further differentiates the role of government communication among individuals across different groups (within vs outside the public sectors; poor vs good health status). It further investigates the role of health-related beliefs as mediators in the relationship between government communication and vaccination intention. Red banners with rhyming slogans have been employed in government communication for decades in China, which are strung across the country and shared on social media in anti-COVID19 and pro-vaccination campaigns (Xu and Renken, 2020) These banners project COVID-19 as a threat to personal health or others and to the state (Xu and Renken, 2020).
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