Intending to have their daughters be ‘one less?': Assessing mothers' intentions to vaccinate their daughters against HPV

This study assessed mothers' intentions to vaccinate their 9 to 15-year-old daughters against HPV using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework. Mothers' experience with sexually transmitted infections, their beliefs about the vaccine encouraging sexual activity, and their perception of their daughters' risk for HPV were also examined for their relationship with intention. A random sample of 1207 mothers in a rural, Midwestern state were mailed a survey with questions pertaining to intention to vaccinate their daughters against HPV. A total of 217 surveys were used for this analysis. Multivariate linear regression was used to determine which factors influence mothers' intentions to vaccinate. The adjusted R-square for this model was 0.66. Attitudes were the strongest predictor of mothers' intentions to vaccinate (â = 0.61, p < 0.001), but intentions were not high. Only about 48% of mothers who responded indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that they were intending to vaccinate their daughters. Subjective norms also influenced intention (â = 0.16, p < 0.05). Mothers' risk perceptions, experience with STIs, and beliefs about the vaccine encouraging sexual activity were not related to intention. Mothers' perceptions of their daughters' risks for HPV were surprisingly low. Further research should explore ways to influence mothers' attitudes and to uncover the important persons or referent groups mothers refer to for vaccination behavior. Implications for health communication interventions will be outlined.