Media literacy and parent’s acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccination for children

Abstract

Vaccination is a prevention cure to stop COVID-19 spreading. In early 2022, the Malaysian government encouraged parents from preschool and primary schools to vaccinate their children to protect them from infectious viruses. The Malaysian government encourages parents of pre- and primary-school children to vaccinate their children vaccinated against COVID-19 virus. Although vaccination benefits children, some parents are hesitant about immunizing their children due to the opposite and different types of information they received about the immunization effect. This study attempts to identify the readiness and acceptance of vaccination to children among parents from Selangor state based on the availability of information tools used by parents in accepting or rejecting vaccination. This study employed a survey method. A sample of 200 parents who have children between the ages of one to 12 years old were selected to participate in this study. Convenient sample selection was carried out to reach the targeted and qualified respondents through email, social media and WhatsApp platforms. Data were analyzed using SPSS. The results indicated that most of the selected parents ready to vaccinate their children and in examining the trustworthiness of the information platform covering COVID-19 vaccination content, mostly trusted the content provided by the Ministry of Health (MoH). The findings also demonstrated a significant positive relationship between parent’s information-seeking behavior and readiness to vaccinate their kids.