High School Students’ Perceptions towards COVID-19 Vaccination: Benefits, Barriers and Influencing Factors

Abstract

After the outbreak of the Corona pandemic and its conquest of the world, it became necessary to find a vaccine against the Corona virus in order to break the cycle of its spread, but the acceptance or rejection of the vaccination by the citizens may be affected by the mental and representational maps that have stuck to the epidemic through the emergence of several trends. Some researchers have observed that the large population has a relatively high reluctance to current vaccinations and that vaccination coverage is not adequate (van Doremalen et al 2020; Harapan et al. 2019). In Morocco, the elderly have, it seems, readily accepted to participate in the vaccination campaign launched by the government. But what is the attitude of young people towards vaccination against COVID 19? This study aims to understand the perceptions towards the COVID-19 vaccination and the targeted subject is the high school students (17-18 years old). The research used five-point Likert scale instruments to examine student’s perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccination. The sample for this analysis is N=263 participants. Through the analysis that targeted the students’ answers about the advantages of vaccination, it was found that vaccination against the Corona virus has several advantages for students of the second year of the baccalaureate, as both scientific and literary students acknowledge that it combats the disease, but the percentage of importance varies from scientific to literary. Statistics from both categories of students indicated that literary people consider the vaccine against the Corona virus to be ineffective, while scientists do not. The results also showed that there are more risks of unwanted negative side effects than benefits. Statistics have also shown that among the obstacles that would prevent students from getting vaccinated against the virus, in addition to fear of the vaccine, doubt about its safety. Both science and literary students indicated that the school, the free vaccination, the media, the Internet, and the family are some important factors that may affect students' receipt of the vaccination. The comparison between the two groups of students showed that there are no significant differences between the students regarding the COVID-19 vaccination process, and from this we can assume that the information obtained by the science students did not affect their perceptions.