Risk, expertise, and the good mother: A qualitative examination of maternal vaccine refusal
Abstract
Recent decreases in vaccination rates among the children of college-educated, privately-insured parents are a source of concern within the public health community. However, despite research suggesting that mothers are the primary decision-makers with regard to their children's health, studies have yet to adequately address the ways ideas about mothering may play a role in vaccine refusal. Drawing from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with fifty mothers (n=50) who refused one or more vaccine, the aim of this study was to examine how mothers' accounts of vaccine refusal reflect and construct particular ideas about health, risk, motherhood, and the relationship between maternal experience and medical authority. Results suggest that participants perceived vaccine injury as a greater threat than vaccine preventable disease. This perception was shaped by an intuitive and highly individualized sense of risk, as well as communication with and from expert sources. Ultimately, this study contributes to scholarship about the discursive construction of motherhood and informs the development of more holistic frameworks for understanding vaccine refusal.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Clair, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Womens studies|Communication|Public health|Immunology
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