COVID Questions


Teens Protecting Teens

Introduction


Kamryn McKibben and Elyssa Valles are members of the 2021 Cohort of the Designing Real World Impacts program. DRWI is a program where students get three partial credits. Participants in the program meet off-site in a professional working environment where we have the opportunity to travel to various sites across the KC area to meet with entrepreneurs and professionals who seek to inspire change and have a positive impact through their work. Participants identify a real problem impacting the lives of people in their community that pull at their heartstrings and inspire them to take action.


Learners work in teams to connect with professionals across the city and the country to explore these problems and gain a deeper understanding. Learners engage in the design thinking process and respond with a solution that has a meaningful and lasting impact. In this program, students learn to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and real-world professional skills, including presentation, interpersonal communication, project management, and collaboration skills.



Why we chose a survey

We created an anonymous survey to allow students and parents to answer honestly and openly. We want this data because our school, Notre Dame de Sion, has a high vaccination rate with students of 88%. We wanted to learn the motivations and reasons behind teens getting vaccinated at our school. This will also allow us to distribute it throughout other schools in the KCMO area.

Ursula Copeland

Academic Health Coordinator at the Kansas City Health Department

Andrea Bradley Ewing

Sr. Director, Community Engaged Research at Children's Mercy Hospital

Mayor Quinton Lucas

Mayor of Kansas City

Objective

Our objective is to present our research to other administrators and leadership at other schools to convince them to survey their student and parent populations, find the reasoning behind why their students have/have not been vaccinated, and help convince the remaining students to get vaccinated. We have learned from public health officials that they are having difficulty collecting data on teen motivations to choose to be/not be vaccinated, because COVID-19 has become a controversial and politicized topic.

Methods

Target sample- 194 students (out of 286), 102 parents (511)

Setting- Notre Dame de Sion High School

Duration of study- Survey open for 1 week

Inclusion/exclusion criteria- all students (all grade levels) and parents invited to share responses


Demographics

Demographics collected from parent survey






Results

Are you vaccinated?

  • 85.1% of students reported being vaccinated (88% the school is confirmed vaccinated).


If vaccinated, what were your reasons for getting vaccinated?

Students:

  • To protect themselves. (72.2%)

  • To protect the community. (62.4%)

  • The CDC and other health organizations recommended the vaccine (57.7%)

Parents:

  • To protect their child. (81.6%)

  • To protect the community. (72.8%)

  • The CDC and other health organizations recommended the vaccine (68%)

  • 55.3% of parents also stated that their child wanted to get vaccinated.

If unvaccinated, why did you choose to not get vaccinated?

Students:

  • Parents didn't want them to get vaccinated. (9.8%)

  • Not enough information is known about COVID or the vaccine. (5.7%)

  • They feel scared or unsure about getting the vaccine. (4.6%)

Parents:

  • Their daughter already has the antibodies for COVID (63% with unvaccinated teens).

  • There isn't enough information known about COVID or the vaccine (63% with unvaccinated teens).

  • Risk of serious illness (63% with unvaccinated teens).

Where do you get your information about the vaccine?

Student Responses:

  • The majority of the students that we surveyed trust CDC information - Students- 77.4% responded 7-10

  • 83.6% of the students who responded get their information from family, 73.3% from CDC and other public health organizations, and 62% get their information from the News

  • Three most common selections from the list of options: Family, CDC and other public health organizations, News



Where do you get your information about the vaccine?


  • 80.7% of the parents who responded get their information from CDC and other public health organizations, 63.4% get their information from their doctor, and 50.5% get their information from the News

  • Three most common selections from the list of options: CDC and other public health organizations, Doctor, News



What would you like others to know about how it feels to have a vaccinated or unvaccinated teen at Sion?

Vaccinated students would want others to know that they feel safe, unharmed, healthy, and welcomed no matter the vaccination statutes.

  • "I'd say just get vaccinated. It's super easy and will protect you from getting deathly ill."

  • "That the vaccine only helps you, it could even save your life. The vaccine is effective and it is very important to get it, if not for yourself but for your family and community."

  • "At Sion, there's not a lot of judgment, and a generally accepting environment so whether vaccinated or not, we're all treated the same."

  • "Being vaccinated is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders."

  • "I wish others knew that getting vaccinated is so easy, and it shouldn't be something to be afraid of."


Unvaccinated students want others to know that they feel judged, uncomfortable and discriminated against.

  • Everyone has to make the right decision for their health-I wish people would not be so self-righteous on either side about their opinions and choices. I don't think people who have had covid and have antibodies should be required to get vaccinated.

  • If masks don't work, then why are the unvaccinated made to wear a mask? It's like wearing a yellow star on my coat. The unclean and the clean. It's my decision to not get vaccinated, make it my choice and my consequences if I get covid. That would be on me, and I fully accept all the risks. If the vaccines work, and herd immunity is a thing, let those who chose not to get vaccinated alone.

  • It is scary not being vaccinated because you don't want to be judged for this decision, and I am not anti-vacine my family just doesn't feel completely safe receiving it yet.

  • To be unvaccinated it feels like your being judged even though I don't have a choice because I can't get vaccinated

  • I’m not a bad person even if I’m not vaccinated aka we can still be friends and I will take precautions I believe are appropriate to keep both of us safe.

Summary of findings

  • Sion parents indicated that the teens held a significant amount of power in making the decision to get the vaccine (55.3% marked "my child wanted to get vaccinated).

  • Sion students indicated that their parents had a significant impact on their decision to get the vaccine (59.4% marked 7-10 on a scale from least to most impact).

  • There is a lot of mistrust in the information given out for teens and parents to believe what is true. Many parents and students who chose not to get vaccinated indicated or wrote that the vaccine is too new and not enough is known about its long-term effects (63% of unvaccinated teens marked this response).

  • Many unvaccinated students and parents said they felt discriminated against, judged, and uncomfortable at school.

Limitations of study

  • Environmental limitations

    • Notre Dame de Sion is a private religious (Catholic) school

    • Student population- 286

    • Sion is able to collect vaccination records and make independent decisions regarding attendance policies and COVID-19 procedures

    • A high percentage of Sion students have consistent access to technology

    • 73% of parents who responded reported post-graduate education

    • Almost 60% of parents who responded indicated they have a household income of $200,000+

    • 62% of parents who responded are affiliated with the Catholic faith


  • Survey limitations

    • Not all students and parents responded

    • Demographics were only collected for parents

    • Unknown of what percent of parents responded


Implications

Do these responses tell us that we are approaching this problem in the right ways?

Approach to Gathering Data

Yes, it shows we are approaching data collection in the right way. We saw students and parents being open and honest. Knowing we want a better understanding of our community and keeping their responses anonymous, gave them space and confidence to tell us how they feel.


Efforts to Increase Teen Vaccine Rates

Is social media the right approach based on where people are getting their info? Should we be targeting teens, parents, or both based on our findings?


We found that teens and social media have less influence on other teens than their parents, CDC and other health organizations, and news/media sources.


We would recommend that public health leaders devote more of their time and resources to educating parents, pediatricians, and finding ways to share information from public health organizations directly with teens.

Why do you think parents, school administrators, and even teens would care about these responses?

They will care because they can see where COVID information is coming from, how comfortable students are in the building, and see how parents and students are feeling about going to school vaccinated or not vaccinated.

They can use this information to create a more comfortable environment for students and to target the needs of their specific student population in order to increase vaccination rates in their community.


Why is Sion's data relevant to other schools, despite the limitations?

The student body is from across KC, diverse population in terms of race, religion, socio-economic status, etc. This survey gathered responses from a large sample of adolescents in a naturalistic environment.

WHat's Next?

Our next steps are to present our findings in our research to the KCMO Health Department and Mayor Quinton Lucas. We hope to connect the Kansas City Public schools and other neighboring private schools. Going into other schools is important to find more information about teens getting or not getting vaccinated. This will give us more diverse and comprehensive responses.




Acknowledgments


  • Thank you to Sion's administration for your approval and support

  • Sion students and parents for participating

  • Andrea for being a community partner and providing a platform to share your research findings

  • Ursula for serving as a mentor and guide as you conducted your research and processed your findings

  • Mayor Lucas for encouraging us to keep getting teens vaccinated and ways we can help his team get more teens vaccinate