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. 2023 Dec 6;10(12):1890.
doi: 10.3390/children10121890.

Motivations for Adolescent COVID-19 Vaccination: A Comparative Study of Adolescent and Caregiver Perspectives in Germany

Tobias Rothoeft  1 , Folke Brinkmann  1   2   3 , Christoph Maier  1 , Dominik Selzer  4 , Christiane Dings  4 , Anna Kuehn  4 , Eva Möhler  5 , Hanna Grote  1 , Alexandra Nonnenmacher  6 , Markus Wenning  7 , Michael Zemlin  8 , Ulf Richter  6 , Thorsten Lehr  4 , Thomas Lücke  1
Affiliations

Motivations for Adolescent COVID-19 Vaccination: A Comparative Study of Adolescent and Caregiver Perspectives in Germany

Tobias Rothoeft et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Given the crucial role of vaccination in halting the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to understand the factors that motivate adolescents to get vaccinated. We surveyed adolescents and their accompanying guardians scheduled to receive a COVID-19 vaccination (Comirnaty) in an urban region in Germany in mid-2021 regarding their motivation for getting vaccinated and collected data on their sociodemographic characteristics, medical history, vaccination status, and any history of COVID-19 infection in the family. We also queried information strategies related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Motivations for getting vaccinated were similar among adolescents and their parents. The primary reasons for vaccination were protection against SARS-CoV-2-related illness and gaining access to leisure facilities. This was not influenced by gender, health status, migration background, or the presence of chronic or acute diseases. The percentage of parents who had received SARS-CoV-2 immunization and the proportion of parents with a high level of education were higher among study participants than in the general population. Adolescents were especially willing to be vaccinated if they came from a better educational environment and had a high vaccination rate in the family. Emphasizing the importance of vaccination among all segments of the population and removing barriers to vaccines may lead to an ameliorated acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines.

Keywords: COVID-19; adolescents; public health; vaccine hesitancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Data selection: surveys completed by accompanying persons and adolescents.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Reasons for adolescents receiving a COVID-19 vaccination, as answered by all adolescents (n = 1378), those without first-generation migration background (n = 1148), and those with a first-generation migration background (n = 230). For numerical data, the reader is kindly referred to Supplementary Table S1.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Reasons for adolescents receiving a COVID-19 vaccination, as answered by all parents (n = 820), parents without first-generation migration background (n = 654), those with a first-generation migration background (n = 57), and those with an unknown migration background (n = 109). For numerical data, the reader is kindly referred to Supplementary Table S2.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants (upper panel) and the rates of first vaccinations (lower panel) for different age groups over time in the Siegen-Wittgenstein study region stratified by age group. School holidays are marked in blue, the study time frame is marked in red. Dashed lines indicate the date of approval of SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations for adolescents by the EMA and the resolution of a law stating that individuals entering Germany from countries with high infection numbers or VOC require a certificate of vaccination, recent recovery from COVID-19, or a negative test result.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.

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