Influence of Parental Psychological Flexibility on Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy and Coping Style

Pediatric COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy hinders the establishment of immune barrier in children. Psychological flexibility may be a key contributing factor to pediatric COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and self-efficacy and coping style play an important role in the relationship, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. A cross-sectional study was conducted on parents from June 2021 to July 2021. A total of 382 parents were recruited for an online-investigation. Serial mediation models were used to examine whether self-efficacy and coping style mediated in the psychological flexibility-pediatric COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy linkage. Psychological flexibility was negatively related to pediatric COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy ( = -0.198, < 0.001). Coping styles rather than self-efficacy played a mediating role independently (95% CI: -0.263 to -0.058). Serial mediation analyses indicated that self-efficacy and coping style co-play a serial mediating role in the association of psychological flexibility and pediatric COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy (95% CI: -0.037 to -0.001). The present study showed that high psychological flexibility, high self-efficacy, and positive coping style were conducive to the lower pediatric COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.