Children & Vaccines: Vaccine Acceptance on the Rise
February 4, 2022
Is anyone ready for some good news? We’ve been in field with a lot of data on all things pandemic: COVID-19 worries, impressions on the convoy in Ottawa, the shortage economy, and more. But what about some numbers that bring some positivity to the conversation?
Aside from tracking worry and concern, over the last couple months we’ve also be in field asking parents about their willingness to vaccinate their children. Though there was initially little change in willingness to vaccine (and even a slight decline from early to mid-December), we have now seen a first glimpse at increasing acceptance.
In mid-December and mid-January we asked parents the following questions:
“How are you thinking about getting your kid(s), who are in the age group of 12-17, vaccinated against COVID-19?”
And
“How are you thinking about getting your kid(s), who are in the age group of 5-11, vaccinated against COVID-19?”
Among both groups, acceptance has risen.
First up are parents of 12-17 year-olds, the age group that’s been eligible for their doses for several months. Between mid-December and mid-January we have seen a notable rise in the acceptance of vaccines for children 12-17 years old. Now, 85% of parents of this age group say their child(ren) has received at least one shot, or they will as soon as it’s available. This is a 10-point increase from when we were in field mid-December.
Most of this movement seems to come from hesitant/undecided parents who seem to be more open to the idea. The number of parents who are ‘refusers’ (say they will not be getting their child(ren) 12-17 vaccinated) remains consistent, around 10%.
Still, there is greater hesitancy around vaccinating 5-11 year-old. However, acceptance has grown in this age group as well. Since mid-December we’ve seen a 5-point increase among parents of this age group either saying their child(ren) have had one shot, or they will as soon as its available.
Again, movement is mainly from a decline in parents who are hesitant, as those in the ‘refuser’ group remain just over 10%.
THE UPSHOT
According to Oksana Kishchuk:
“At a time where much of the news coverage around the pandemic has a negative cast it is refreshing to see that some datapoints are trending in the right direction. Though there is still work to be done, moving more parents from hesitant to acceptance and acceptance into vaccinated, these numbers provide some hope that we are slowly on our way out of this pandemic. We will continue to track these numbers and hope that acceptance among parents reaches the acceptance levels we’ve seen among adults.”
METHODOLOGY
This survey was conducted in our omnibus survey from January 18th to 20th, 2022. The sample of parents of children 12-17 was n=276. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 5.9%, 19 times out of 20. The sample of parents of children under 12 was n=396. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 4.92%, 19 times out of 20.
The survey was conducted using a random sample of panelists invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. These partners are double opt-in survey panels, blended to manage out potential skews in the data from a single source.
The data was weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region.
Abacus Data follows the CRIC Public Opinion Research Standards and Disclosure Requirements that can be found here: https://canadianresearchinsightscouncil.ca/standards/
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