Secondary school Greek students (12-18), science/scientific literacy on vaccines and factors related to attitudes towards them

While from the end of the 1800s until today about 1.5 billion people have been saved from many diseases thanks to vaccinations, hesitation or even rejection of vaccines still exists in the modern world, taking on alarming proportions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the degree of students" science/scientific literacy on vaccines through the level of acceptance, the level of hesitation or the level of rejection by them. The research sample consists of 517 students of Secondary Education and the survey was conducted with a closed-form questionnaire combining demographics (gender, class, parenting level, internet- connected devices) and questions that invεstigate attitudes and perceptions in individual aspects of the vaccine issue. The results showed that students" scientific literacy in vaccines is deficient and incomplete, despite the fact that the average result shows acceptance in their use and safety. At the same time, however, delayed acceptance, reluctance, lack of trust and even rejection of vaccines have raised the concern about the vaccine adoption by this age group. Of particular interest are the secondary results of research on the correlation of factors such as the Internet, the educational level of parents, the school learning environment, interpersonal relationships and students individual perceptions and attitudes towards this issue.