Relationship Between Fear of COVID-19, Conspiracy Beliefs About Vaccines and Intention to Vaccinate Against COVID-19: A Cross-National Indirect Effect Model in 13 Latin American Countries

The present study explored the predictive capacity of fear of COVID-19 on the intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and the influence in this relationship of conspiracy beliefs as a possible mediating psychological variable, in 13 Latin American countries. A total of 5779 people recruited through non-probabilistic convenience sampling participated. To collect information, we used the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Vaccine conspiracy beliefs Scale-COVID-19 and a single item of intention to vaccinate. A full a priori Structural Equation Model was used; whereas, cross-country invariance was performed from increasingly restricted structural models. The results indicated that, fear of COVID-19 positively predicts intention to vaccinate and the presence of conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines. The latter negatively predicted intention to vaccinate against COVID-19. Besides, conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines had an indirect effect on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 in the 13 countries assessed. Finally, the cross-national similarities of the mediational model among the 13 participating countries are strongly supported. The study is the first to test a cross-national mediational model across variables in a large number of Latin American countries. However, further studies with other countries in other regions of the world are needed.

• Autores: Caycho-Rodríguez, Tomás; Tomás, José M.; Yupanqui-Lorenzo, Daniel E.; Valencia, Pablo D.; Carbajal-León, Carlos; Vilca, Lindsey W.; Ventura-León, José; Paredes-Angeles, Rubí; Arias Gallegos, Walter L; Reyes-Bossio, Mario; Delgado-Campusano, Mariel; Moreno Palacios, Miguel; Rojas-Jara, Claudio; Polanco-Carrasco, Roberto; Cervigni, Mauricio; Martino, Pablo; Lobos-Rivera, Marlon Elías; Moreta-Herrera, Rodrigo; Palacios Segura, Diego Alejandro; Samaniego-Pinho, Antonio; Buschiazzo Figares, Andrés; Puerta-Cortés, Diana Ximena; Camargo, Andrés; Torales, Julio; Monge Blanco, J. Arkangel; González, Pedronel; Smith-Castro, Vanessa; Petzold-Rodriguez, Olimpia; Corrales-Reyes, Ibraín Enrique; Calderón, Raymundo; Matute Rivera, Wendy Yamilet; Ferrufino-Borja, Daniela; Ceballos-Vásquez, Paula; Del Río Gaitán, Juan David; Palacios, Jorge; Burgos-Videla, Carmen; Florez León, Ana María Eduviges; Vergara, Ibeth; Vega, Diego; Shulmeyer, Marion K; Barria-Asenjo, Nicol A.; Urrutia Rios, Hassell Tatiana; Lira Lira, Arelly Esther
• Tipo de recurso: Article of investigation
• Fecha de publicación: 2023
• Institución: Universidad de Ibagué
• Repositorio: Repositorio Universidad de Ibagué
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.unibague.edu.co:20.500.12313/5573
• Acceso en línea: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12313/5573
• Palabra clave: Covid 19; Covid 19 - Vacunas; Beliefs; Conspiracy; COVID-19; Fear; Vaccination
• Rights: openAccess
• License: © The Author(s) 2023.