GESIS Pretest Database: Documentation Questions Details - FReDA-W2a - Questions about infection with and vaccination against COVID-19 (English Version)

General Information:

*Note: The item was tested in German. This is an English translation of the original German wording.

Question Text:

Please think of your child(ren) ages 12-17 now:
Would you have your child(ren) vaccinated against COVID-19 (Corona)?

[Bitte denken Sie an Ihr(e) Kind(er) im Alter von 12-17 Jahen: Würden Sie Ihr(e) Kind(er) gegen COVID-19 (Corona) impfen lassen? ]

Recommendations:

Similar to question 5 (vaccination status), we recommend asking (initially) only whether children between the ages of 12 and 17 have been vaccinated (see question 1 below). Furthermore, if the number of children of the respondent is known, both the question and answer options could be adapted and simplified accordingly (e.g. only "Is..." instead of "Is/Are..." or for one child only the answer options "Yes" and "No").

If, in addition, the willingness to vaccinate of respondents whose children have not yet been vaccinated (all of them) is to be recorded, these could be given an additional question afterwards (see question 2 below). Since there are now vaccination offers for children, we recommend that this question be phrased in the indicative (will) rather than the subjunctive (would).

Question 1: Please think of your child(ren) aged 12-17 now.

Is/are your child(ren) vaccinated against COVID-19 (Corona)?
Yes, all children ages 12-17 are vaccinated
Yes, but not all children ages 12-17 are vaccinated
No

If question 1 = Yes, but... or No:

Question 2: Will you have your child(ren) vaccinated against COVID-19 (Corona)?

0 - Absolutely not; 10 - Definitely.

Cognitive Techniques:

Category Selection Probing

Findings for Question:

Question 7 was asked of respondents who had indicated in the screening questions that they had children between the ages of 12 to 17 who lived - at least occasionally - in the respondent's household (n= 69). As shown in Table 8, the test persons used the full range of the response scale. A total of 25 respondents selected the residual category "Child(ren) are already vaccinated or recovered against COVID-19 and therefore do not need to be vaccinated (again)." Of these, 60% (n = 15) additionally located themselves on the response scale rather than selecting only the residual category. All of these respondents were in favor of vaccination for children aged 12 to 17 years (scale scores 7 to 10).

The aim of the pretest was to investigate how the respondents justified their answers to question 7 and whether the justifications matched the selected scale value. The corresponding probing question (N1_F7, see Appendix) was asked of a total of 44 respondents. The justifications of the majority (90%) of the test persons matched the respective selected scale values, i.e. lower values on the response scale corresponded to a negative attitude towards vaccination, higher values to a support of vaccination of children aged between 12 and 17 years:

"The vaccine currently used does more harm than good and also has no long-term study." (TP108, scale score: 0)
"I am not convinced about the effectiveness of vaccination for children. The immune system is still building itself up." (TP149, scale score: 1)
"Not sure yet because of side effects." (TP143, scale score: 6)
"I am confident that the vaccine will protect them and help contain the virus." (TP90, scale score: 10)
"Is safe." (TP95, scale score: 10)

Three test persons located themselves on the response scale, but when probed, indicated that their children had already been vaccinated. These subjects should therefore have selected the residual category. Like the respondents described above who selected both a value on the response scale and the residual category, these three respondents endorsed vaccination for children in this age group (scale value 10).

Question Topic:

Public health/ Prevention

Construct:

Vaccination willingness for children ages 12 to 17