1. Parental Reactions to Communications on the 1954 Polio Vaccine Tests.
- Author
-
Youmans, E. Grant
- Subjects
POLIOMYELITIS vaccines ,SOCIAL status ,SOCIAL groups ,SOCIAL participation ,PRESTIGE ,PUBLIC health - Abstract
This paper (1) evaluates the preparatory communications to parents about the 1954 polio vaccine tests in a local suburban and rural area, (2) assesses parental reactions to the communications and to the vaccine program itself, and (3) examines the hypothesis that socioeconomic status is a significant factor in determining how persons receive, evaluate, and respond to communications on a public health measure. Higher-status parents compared to lower-status parents received much more information both favorable and unfavorable to the polio vaccine program and reacted more critically to the unfavorable information. A substantially greater proportion of high- than of low-status mothers permitted their children to participate in the program. This paper suggests that the media for communicating on science and medicine tend to be middle-class oriented and middle-class received. The significant question is: how can communications on health measures be designed, directed, and channeled so that large numbers of persons in all social groups will be reached and influenced? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1958