Reference no: EM132395675 , Length: word count : 2500
PSYC3302 Psychological Measurement and its Application-The University of Western Australia
Laboratory Report
Aims
To develop and evaluate a comprehensive scale for measuring vaccination attitudes—known as the Vaccination Confidence Scale (VCS)—that taps the five major themes associated with low vaccine confidence identified by content analyses of anti-vaccination websites and materials (see Background Context). The scale was administered to a large group of parents to examine its reliability, factorial validity, and convergent validity (you do not yet know what these concepts mean, but until we cover these topics in our lectures in weeks 3—6 you can skip ahead and read about them in the book or some other resource).
Convergent validity was examined by including a pre-existing validated measure of vaccination attitudes—known as the Vaccination Attitude Scale (VAS; Freed, Clark, Butchart, Singer, & Davis, 2010)—and a single item measure assessing a parents willingness to vaccinate a future child with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Intention to vaccinate a future child with the MMR vaccine—rather than some other vaccine—was chosen because this vaccine has historically proven controversial, for reasons that are briefly summarised in the paper by Lesk (2007) in the reading resources.
Details of Study
The study was conducted as an online survey using Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com)—a cloud- based platform for building, hosting, and distributing surveys. Participants completed the survey online using their own internet-enabled device. They read an information sheet and provided informed consent before commencing the survey.
The survey consisted of the following elements administered in the following order:
1. Demographic questions: gender, current country of residence, ZIP code, number and age of children, annual gross household income, ethnicity, and level of education.
2. General Information About MMR Vaccine: a brief verbal passage giving background information on the MMR vaccine (see attachment “General Information About MMR Vaccine”)
3. Intent to vaccinate: this is a single item measure asking parents to “Please indicate the likelihood that you would vaccinate a future child with at least one dose of the MMR vaccine”. Responses are given on an 11-point scale ranging from 0 (Not at all likely) to 10 (Extremely likely).
4. Attitudinal measures:
• Vaccination Attitude Scale (VAS): this is a pre-existing validated measure of vaccination attitudes developed by Freed et al. (2010; see attachment “Vaccination Attitude Scale”).
• Vaccination Confidence Scale (VCS): this is the new yet-to-be validated measure of vaccination attitudes developed for the purpose of this study (see attachment “Vaccination Confidence Scale”).
• Note—the order of administration of the VAS and VCS was counterbalanced across participants.
General Information About MMR Vaccine
What are measles, mumps, and rubella?
Measles, mumps and rubella are all highly contagious viral illnesses.
Measles causes rash, cough, runny nose, eye irritation, and fever. Complications can include ear infection, pneumonia, seizures (jerking or staring), brain damage, and death.
Mumps causes fever, headache, and swollen glands. Complications can include deafness, meningitis (infection of the brain and spinal cord covering), painful swelling of the testicles or ovaries, and, rarely, death.
Rubella (German measles) causes rash, mild fever, and arthritis (mostly in women). If a woman gets rubella while she is pregnant, she could have a miscarriage or her baby could be born with serious birth defects.
About the MMR vaccine
Age of vaccination
12 to 15 months - first dose of MMR vaccine.
4 to 6 years - second dose of MMR vaccine. 1
How effective is the vaccine?
The MMR vaccine is an effective measure in preventing disease transmission. After two doses of the MMR vaccine:
97% of recipients will be protected against measles and rubella,
88% of recipients will be protected against mumps. 2
Rates of measles, mumps and rubella have declined in the United States due to the introduction of the MMR vaccine. 1
Cost
Health insurance covers the cost of the MMR vaccine for most children.
Otherwise, the Vaccine for Children (VFC) program 3 provides the MMR vaccine for free to eligible children (although there may be an administrative fee of up to $15).
Article References :
Experts concerned about vaccination backlash.
A postmodern Pandora’s box: Anti-vaccination misinformation on the Internet By Anna Kata.
Measuring vaccine hesitancy: The development of a survey tool By Heidi J. Larsona and Caitlin Jarrett.
Vaccine hesitancy: Definition, scope and determinants By Noni E. MacDonald.
Target the fence-sitters.
Combined vaccines are like a sudden onslaught to the body’s immune system’: Parental concerns about vaccine ‘overload’ and ‘immune-vulnerability’ By Shona Hilton ∗, Mark Petticrew, Kate Hunt.
Parental Vaccine Safety Concerns in 2009.
Antivaccination activists on the world wide web By P Davies and S Chapman and J Leask.
Vaccine hesitancy, vaccine refusal and the anti-vaccine movement: influence, impact and implications By Eve Dube and Maryline Vivion.
A Crisis of Public Confidence in Vaccines BY Steven Black and Rino Rappuoli.
Strategies intended to address vaccine hesitancy: Review of published reviews By Eve Dube and Dominique Gagnona.
Content and Design Attributes of Antivaccination Web Sites By Robert M. Wolfe and Lisa K. Sharp.
Going with the Grain of Cognition: Applying Insights from Psychology to Build Support for Childhood Vaccination By Isabel Rossen, Mark J. Hurlstone and Carmen Lawrence.
The Influence of Vaccine-critical Websites on Perceiving Vaccination Risks By CORNELIA BETSCH and FRANK RENKEWITZ.
Attachment:- Vaccination Scale.rar