Study: Childhood Trauma Can Influence Doubts About Getting Vaccines

The study authors used responses to a telephone survey of adults in the UK taken between December 2020 and March 2021, when COVID-19 restrictions were in place. Of the 6,763 people contacted, 2,285 met all criteria and answered all questions and were included in the final analysis.

The survey asked about nine types of childhood experiences before the age of 18, including: separated parents; physical, verbal, and sexual harassment; exposure to domestic violence; and live with someone who has a mental illness, abuses alcohol and/or drugs, or is in prison. That includes detailed personal and long-term health information.

About half of the respondents said they had never experienced childhood trauma. Of those who did, one in five said they had experienced one type, 17% reported two to three types, and 10% reported four or more.

According to the authors, this prevalence of childhood experiences is consistent with other population surveys, including those conducted face-to-face.

They also investigated trust levels and preferences for different health regulations.

People with more childhood trauma are more likely to have low trust in government COVID-19 information.

While sociodemography and history of chronic illness or COVID-19 infection, the study showed no significant association with low confidence.

People who reported a higher number of traumas were also more likely to say they felt unfairly constrained by the government. People with four or more experiences were twice as likely to say they felt unfairly restricted and wanted regulations such as mandatory masks to stop.

In addition, people with four or more types of trauma were almost twice as likely to ignore pandemic restrictions as those who did not.

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