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COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Among Latino/a Immigrants: The Role of Collective Responsibility and Confidence

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Abstract

Research on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has been sparse among Latino/a immigrants, a population at high risk for infection. This exploratory study examines rates of vaccine acceptance and its association with psychological antecedents of vaccination among Latino/a immigrants. A cross-sectional telephone survey on perceptions of COVID-19 was administered between October 2020 to February 2021 in South Florida to 200 adult Latino/a immigrants. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and logistic regression were employed to determine the influence of independent variables on vaccine acceptance. Most participants indicated a willingness to get vaccinated. Participants with higher confidence (aOR = 10.2, 95% CI: 4.8–21.8) and collective responsibility scores were (aOR = 3.1, 95%CI:1.3–6.9) more likely to report vaccine acceptance than those with lower scores. No other psychological antecedents or demographic variables were significantly associated with vaccine acceptance. Study results provide insights into motivating factors for vaccination that can inform culturally tailored education campaigns to increase vaccine acceptability in this population.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part, by [Grant #U54MD002266] awarded by the National Institutes of Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). The funder had no role in the preparation, design, data collection, analysis or decision to publish the manuscript. The views expressed here solely belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of NIH or NIMHD.

This study was approved by the Social and Behavioral Institutional Review Board at a large public university in South Florida.

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Author notes

  1. C. Kirchoff and A. Penn contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St., AHC5, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    C. Kirchoff, A. Penn & M. Sanchez

  2. Center for Research on U.S. Latinos HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St., AHC5, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    W. Wang, R. Babino, M. De La Rosa & M. A. Cano

  3. School of Social Work, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St., AHC5, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    M. De La Rosa

  4. School of Public Health, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA

    M. A. Cano

Authors
  1. C. Kirchoff
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  2. A. Penn
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  4. R. Babino
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  5. M. De La Rosa
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  6. M. A. Cano
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  7. M. Sanchez
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Contributions

Christie Kirchoff: Conceptualization, Writing – initial draft, Writing – review and editing, Data curation, Methodology, and, A. Penn: Conceptualization, Writing – initial draft, Writing – review and editing. M. Sanchez: Supervision, Writing – review, and editing. W. Wang: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – review, and editing. R. Babino: Project administration, Writing- review, and editing. M. De La Rosa: Supervision, Writing – review, and editing. M.A. Cano: Methodology, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing- review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Penn.

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Kirchoff, C., Penn, A., Wang, W. et al. COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Among Latino/a Immigrants: The Role of Collective Responsibility and Confidence. J Immigrant Minority Health 25, 1246–1253 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-023-01513-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-023-01513-1

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