Do gender and educational level predict vaccination? The mediating role of attitudes towards vaccines and fear of COVID‐19

Abstract

Abstract Given that the relationship between educational level, gender, and the fact of getting vaccinated does not seem to be clear, the aim of this research has been to verify if the beliefs towards vaccines and the fear of COVID‐19 are mediating this relationship in a general Spanish sample of 761 participants. A logistic regression with latent variables was estimated using Mplus. The results showed that there is no direct effect of gender or educational level on vaccination but both, fear of COVID‐19 and attitudes towards vaccines, act as mediators. Specifically, people with university studies show higher scores in trust of vaccine benefits, which in turn is a good predictor of getting vaccinated or not. So that having university studies and confidence in vaccines better predict getting vaccinated. Furthermore, being a woman with high levels of fear of COVID‐19, as well as having up to higher education and showing high levels of fear of COVID‐19, better predict getting vaccinated. However, this is a non‐probabilistic sample, and similar studies should be carried out with a representative sample of the Spanish population and of another countries, in which the rate of people vaccinated against other viruses is declining. This study reports the importance of a model including mediating variables when analyzing the influence of sociodemographic variables on deciding to get vaccinated or not, because this kind of model allow the detection of specific groups with low probability of vaccination, which would allow the design of specific strategies.