“I trust the health care system, but I also do a little bit of research to understand more”: Vaccine decision-making processes of Vietnamese American parents as acts of agency

Parents with access to healthcare providers decide to vaccinate their children after engaging in a series of health behaviors, including scheduling annual checkups, listening to vaccine recommendations, and choosing which recommendations to follow. However, few studies in the US have focused on the decision-making processes of parents who consent to vaccinations. Instead, scholars have focused on US-born parents who reject or delay immunizations. This study uses an intersectional lens to analyze in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 41 Vietnamese American parents residing in Southern California to study how they came to their decisions about immunizing their children with specific vaccines. It found that even though parents varied in socioeconomic status and reported trust in immunizations and the US healthcare system, their vaccine decision-making processes included three dynamic tactics before consenting: accessing and evaluating vaccine information from professional and informal networks, independently researching vaccine literature, and asking healthcare providers additional vaccine-related questions. For these parents, receiving advanced and culturally competent vaccine notifications and recommendations influenced whether they actively decided on vaccinations. Illuminating how these parents command their agency by deliberately engaging in multi-step vaccine decision-making processes, these findings challenge the racialization of Asian Americans as model minorities who passively cooperate with medical recommendations.