How a ‘good parent’ decides on childhood vaccination. Demonstrating independence and deliberation during Dutch healthcare visits

Abstract

Childhood vaccination consultations are considered an important phase in parents’ decision-making process. To date, only a few empirical studies conducted in the United States have investigated real-life consultations. To address this gap, we recorded Dutch vaccination conversations between healthcare providers and parents during routine health consultations for their newborns. The data were analysed using Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology. We found that the topic of vaccination was often initiated with ‘Have you already thought about vaccination?’ (HYATAV), and that this formulation was consequential for parental identity work. Exploring the interactional trajectories engendered by this initiation format we show that: (1) interlocutors treat the question as consisting of two types of queries, (2) conversational trajectories differ according to which of the queries is attended to and that (3) parents work up a ‘good parent’ identity in response to HYATAV, by demonstrating that they think about their child’s vaccination beforehand and make their decisions independently. Our findings shed new light on the interactional unfolding of parental vaccination decisions.