Elsevier

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 37, Issue 3, September 2005, Pages 179-186
Journal of Adolescent Health

Original article
Predictors of STI vaccine acceptability among parents and their adolescent children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.06.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To identify attitudes and behavioral factors associated with parental intent to vaccinate their adolescent children against sexually transmitted infections (STI) and adolescent intent to accept vaccination for the prevention of STI.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, 320 parents and their adolescent children (aged 12–17 years) were recruited from urban adolescent health clinics and private practice pediatric offices to complete audio, computer-assisted self-interviews (A-CASI). Parents and their adolescents were asked about acceptability of gonorrhea, genital herpes, and human immumodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) vaccines. These three items were summed to create an STI vaccine acceptability scale, the primary outcome variable. Potential predictors measured included health beliefs, sociodemographic factors, and health and sexual behaviors.

Results

A substantial majority of parents and their adolescent children rated the three STI vaccines as very acceptable. Parental health beliefs and parental history of STI diagnosis were significant independent predictors of intent to vaccinate adolescent children against STI. Parental intent to vaccinate and having a friend who had engaged in sexual intercourse were significant independent predictors of adolescents’ intent to accept STI vaccination.

Conclusions

The majority of these parents and their adolescent children found STI vaccination very acceptable, suggesting that there will be great interest in these vaccines once they become available. Interventions designed to address parental health beliefs may prove successful at maintaining or increasing interest in STI vaccines. Adolescents are likely to look to their parents for guidance around acceptance of these vaccines, but personal experiences also may play a role.

Section snippets

Study population and procedure

We recruited participants from waiting rooms of urban primary care adolescent health clinics and community-based pediatric private practices. Inclusion criteria included ability to understand English, adolescent’s age from 12 to 17 years, and adolescent accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Of the parent-adolescent pairs who met the inclusion criteria, 62% agreed to participate in the study. The majority (nearly 70%) of those who declined to participate did so due to time constraints.

Descriptive statistics

Sample descriptives are presented in Table 1. The 320 parents/guardians were 24 to 66 years of age (mean = 41.0; SD = 7.1), 93.1% were female, 59.7% described themselves as white, 36.3% as African-American, and 4.0% as other race/ethnic group. The 320 adolescents were 12 to 17 years of age (mean = 14.3; SD = 1.6), 67.2% were female, 59.7% described themselves as white, 36.9% as African-American, and 3.4% as other race/ethnic group.

With respect to STI vaccine acceptability, 85.3% of parents

Discussion

This study evaluated both parents’ and their adolescents’ attitudes about STI vaccination. As expected, we found high levels of acceptability for STI vaccination, with approximately 90% endorsing vaccination against herpes and HIV. Even a vaccine for a treatable infection (gonorrhea) was deemed acceptable to over 80% of parents and adolescents. These results are consistent with previous studies, which have also shown relatively high parental acceptability of STI vaccines [13], [15], [16]. Also,

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Freddie Harris for his assistance with data entry and management and April Ravert for her assistance with data collection and planning.

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    This study was funded by grant U19 AI31494 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD.

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