TY - JOUR
T1 - Beyond emotions
T2 - Social cognitive predictors of COVID-19 vaccination intentions before and after vaccine roll-out
AU - Manoli, Athina
AU - Kyprianidou, Maria
AU - Lamnisos, Demetris
AU - Lubenko, Jelena
AU - Presti, Giovambattista
AU - Squatrito, Valeria
AU - Constantinou, Marios
AU - Nicolaou, Christiana
AU - Papacostas, Savvas
AU - Aydin, Gökçen
AU - Chong, Yuen Yu
AU - Chien, Wai Tong
AU - Cheng, Ho Yu
AU - Ruiz, Francisco
AU - Garcia-Martin, Maria Belen
AU - Obando-Posada, Diana P.
AU - Segura-Vargas, Miguel
AU - Vasiliou, Vasilis S.
AU - McHugh, Louise
AU - Höfer, Stefan
AU - Baban, Adriana
AU - Neto, David Dias
AU - Silva, Ana Nunes Da
AU - Monestès, Jean Louis
AU - Alvarez-Galvez, Javier
AU - Paez-Blarrina, Marisa
AU - Montesinos, Francisco
AU - Valdivia-Salas, Sonsoles
AU - Ori, Dorottya
AU - Kleszcz, Bartosz
AU - Lappalainen, Raimo
AU - Ivanović, Iva
AU - Gosar, David
AU - Dionne, Frederick
AU - Merwin, Rhonda
AU - Karekla, Maria
AU - Gloster, Andrew
AU - Kassianos, Angelos
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 Manoli et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2026/1
Y1 - 2026/1
N2 - Understanding the drivers of COVID-19 vaccination intentions remains relevant as public health systems prepare for future pandemics. This study examined how emotional and social-cognitive factors influence COVID-19 vaccination intentions during two key phases of the COVID-19 pandemic: before (April-June 2020) and after (January-February 2021) vaccination rollout. A total of 586 adults completed an online survey assessing beliefs about COVID-19, self-efficacy to adhere to protective behaviours, perceived stress, affect, psychological flexibility, and prosociality. Self-efficacy, prosociality, psychological flexibility and positive affect significantly declined after vaccination rollout. Higher self-efficacy and perceived severity of the disease consistently predicted stronger vaccination intentions across time points. Perceived susceptibility was negatively associated with vaccination intention before, but not after rollout. The psychological variables were not significant predictors of intentions. These findings underscore the importance of social-cognitive factors, especially self-efficacy and perceived severity, in shaping vaccination-related decisions, with implications for designing effective communication strategies in future health emergencies.
AB - Understanding the drivers of COVID-19 vaccination intentions remains relevant as public health systems prepare for future pandemics. This study examined how emotional and social-cognitive factors influence COVID-19 vaccination intentions during two key phases of the COVID-19 pandemic: before (April-June 2020) and after (January-February 2021) vaccination rollout. A total of 586 adults completed an online survey assessing beliefs about COVID-19, self-efficacy to adhere to protective behaviours, perceived stress, affect, psychological flexibility, and prosociality. Self-efficacy, prosociality, psychological flexibility and positive affect significantly declined after vaccination rollout. Higher self-efficacy and perceived severity of the disease consistently predicted stronger vaccination intentions across time points. Perceived susceptibility was negatively associated with vaccination intention before, but not after rollout. The psychological variables were not significant predictors of intentions. These findings underscore the importance of social-cognitive factors, especially self-efficacy and perceived severity, in shaping vaccination-related decisions, with implications for designing effective communication strategies in future health emergencies.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105028936561
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pgph.0005668
DO - 10.1371/journal.pgph.0005668
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105028936561
SN - 2767-3375
VL - 6
JO - PLOS Global Public Health
JF - PLOS Global Public Health
IS - 1 January
M1 - e0005668
ER -
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being