Parental Vaccine Hesitancy in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Results from a Cross-Sectional Survey in the United States, 2025.

Background/

Objectives

Vaccine hesitancy has long been recognized to pose a significant barrier to achieving optimal immunization coverage and as a leading public health threat. However, much of the existing research on parental hesitancy toward routine childhood vaccines was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Acknowledging the impact that this public health emergency had on attitudes toward vaccination, there is a need to conduct additional research into contemporary predictors of parental vaccine hesitancy.

Methods

We conducted a survey in August 2025 to characterize vaccine hesitancy attitudes in parents in the United States. A series of 10 statements about vaccines was presented to study participants, who were asked to indicate their agreement with the statements using 5-point Likert scales. A vaccine hesitancy index measure was then calculated by averaging the scores, where higher scores corresponded to higher levels of vaccine hesitancy. A hierarchical regression analysis was then conducted to identify participant characteristics that were associated with vaccine hesitancy.

Results

A total of 1016 individuals were included in the analysis. Simple linear regression suggested that education, annual household income, and politics were associated with vaccine hesitancy. The fully adjusted multiple linear regression model that accounted for participant demographic, socioeconomic, geographic, and political characteristics suggested significant associations between race, education, and partisanship.

Conclusions

Significant associations exist between parental vaccine hesitancy and race, education, and partisanship. These results contribute to our understanding of vaccine hesitancy in a post-COVID-19 world and suggest that social, educational, and political factors meaningfully influence parental vaccine hesitancy in the United States.