Vaccine Hesitancy Linked to Vital Childhood Details Possibly From Abuse, Neglect of Parents

As soon as the vaccines against COVID-19 were announced, most welcomed the opportunity with open arms. However, a non-trivial minority did not. People that are hesitant and resistant to vaccines hold very strong views and assert their view of rejecting conventional medical or public health recommendations. This behavior has puzzled many across the globe and has become a flashpoint for many countries.

This behavior raised the question of where the strong, and often visceral anti-vaccination sentiments, emerge from?

How Childhood Affects Vaccine Hesitancy in Adults

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Lifecourse researchers know that adult attitudes often stem from childhood details. Thus, a team inquired about vaccine resistance among participants of the long-running Dunedin Study, which has marked its 50th year just this month.

The team surveyed study participants regarding their vaccination intentions from April and July 2021, before the national vaccine rollout in New Zealand in August 2021. The inquiry's findings supported the idea that anti-vaccination sentiments stemmed from participants' childhood experiences.

The Dunedin Study followed a cohort of births from 1972 to 1973 and has amassed information on various aspects of the lives of 1037 participants, including physical health, personal experiences, long-standing values, lifestyles, motives, information-processing, and emotional tendencies going back to the participant's childhood.

Roughly 90% of the members of the Dunedin Study responded to the team's 2021 survey regarding vaccination intent. The team found that 13% of the cohort did not have plans to get vaccinated at the same rate as men and women, reports ScienceAlert.

When comparing the early life histories of participants resistant to vaccinations to those not, the team found that many vaccine-resistant adults had histories of adverse experiences in their childhood, such as maltreatment, abuse, deprivation, neglect, or alcoholic parents. The team believes that these key childhood experiences made their youth unpredictable and contributed to a lifelong legacy of mistrust of authority figures.

Personality tests at 18-years old showed that participants in the vaccine-resistant group were more prone to frequent bursts of extreme emotions of anger and fear, shutting down mentally when under stress.

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Cognitive Difficulties and Negative Emotions

Meanwhile, the team also found that some vaccine-resistant study members had cognitive difficulties since childhood, which alongside early-life adversities and emotional vulnerabilities, contributed to their strong views. They had been poor readers in school and scored low on study tests of processing speed and verbal comprehension.

Longstanding cognitive difficulties can easily be seen to make it difficult for people to comprehend detailed health information even under the calmest conditions. However, when comprehension difficulties combine with extreme negative emotions more common in vaccine-resistant adults, i8t leads to vaccination decisions that are inexplicable to health professionals.

The team recommends that future pandemics include preventive education to children at school regarding epidemiology, mechanisms of infection, viruses, infection-mitigating behaviors, and vaccines. Early education prepares the public to appreciate the need for minimum health standards, especially regarding vaccinations.