Psychosocial factors influencing Italians’ vaccination acceptance during the Covid-19 pandemic: A grounded theory approach

Background: Mass vaccination against Covid-19 represents the most cost-effective and powerful tool for controlling the pandemic. Psychosocial studies have identified several factors that can facilitate or hinder vaccine acceptance. However, most research used a quantitative approach, which hardly provides a complete picture of people’s opinions and experiences with Covid-19 vaccines. To fill this gap in the literature, this qualitative study aimed to explore, from a psychosocial point of view, participants’ representations and experiences regarding prevention, vaccination in general, and vaccination against Covid-19. Methods: We interviewed 25 Italian adults (Women = 64%; Mage = 44.6; SD = 14.8) and analysed data using a Grounded Theory Methodology. Findings: Results showed that, from participants’ perspective, vaccination against Covid-19 represented little more than “half prevention”, a way to limit rather than prevent damage. In this sense, the identified core category – which was related to the relationship between “knowledge and time” – expressed a gap between the representation of the “new” Covid-19 vaccines and that of traditional preventive behaviours, whose usefulness, safety and effectiveness, in the view of the respondents, was instead recognised and legitimised in the course of time and history. Discussion: These results suggest that interventions should aim at reducing this gap, encouraging the idea that vaccination against COVID-19 is in all respect a safe and effective preventive tool, and fostering trust in the official sources of information about the vaccine, in particular doctors, health professionals, and policymakers