Journal article
Juggling risks: A social representations investigation of women, pregnancy and COVID ?19 vaccination
Journal of community & applied social psychology, Vol.33(6), pp.1440-1454
11/2023
Metrics
Abstract
Pregnant women are at disproportionate risk of harm from contracting COVID-19, but pregnant women in regional Australia have been less likely to be vaccinated than their non-pregnant counterparts. This longitudinal research drew from social representations theory to investigate emerging social knowledge associated with the COVID-19 virus and COVID-19 vaccination concerning women and pregnancy in regional Australia: One wave of data collected at the start of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in June–August 2021 and another wave in January–February 2022. An online survey comprised risk and benefit scales and one of two-word association tasks completed by 304 participants in Wave One (Mage = 38.75, SD = 12.63) and 20 women in Wave Two (Mage = 40.00, SD = 11.32). Mean scale scores suggest women considering pregnancy and pregnant women perceived themselves as at disproportionate risk of COVID-19 and the AstraZeneca vaccine. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) suggested a negative, emerging representational field associated with COVID-19 vaccination. MDS, HCA and thematic analysis suggested emerging contradiction in women's social knowledge of women, pregnancy and COVID-19 vaccination in Waves One and Two. These findings reflect how pregnant women navigated a rapidly evolving context of COVID-19 and vaccination when vaccines became available.
Details
- Title
- Juggling risks: A social representations investigation of women, pregnancy and COVID ?19 vaccination
- Creators
- Shayleigh Walker-Jones - Southern Cross UniversityGail Moloney - Southern Cross UniversityMarie Hutchinson - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- Journal of community & applied social psychology, Vol.33(6), pp.1440-1454
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Identifiers
- 991013141813002368
- Copyright
- © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Open access publishing facilitated by Southern Cross University, as part of the Wiley - Southern Cross University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
- Academic Unit
- Human Sciences; Faculty of Health
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article