COVID-19 vaccination in Brazilian public security agents: are human values good predictors?
Policing: An International Journal
ISSN: 1363-951X
Article publication date: 17 January 2023
Issue publication date: 23 March 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The authors investigated the effect of basic human values in the prediction of COVID-19 vaccination behavior amongst public security agents in Brazil.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 15,313 Brazilian public security agents responded to the portrait values questionnaire and a COVID vaccination behavior measure. Multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) was used to observe the order of the predicted by the theory. For hypotheses, the authors ran a series of Structural equation modeling (SEM) with direct effects between values and vaccination rate.
Findings
Results suggest that the values of conservation and self-transcendence positively predicted vaccination. A nonsignificative negative prediction was obtained for openness to change and self-enhancement values on vaccination behavior.
Research limitations/implications
Data were collected using self-report questionnaires.
Practical implications
Institutional management should encourage capacitation campaigns aimed at public security agents, enabling a significant increase in vaccine protection for the public security institutions.
Social implications
The reinforcement of conservation and self-transcendence values lead to the perception of the vaccine as a measure of caring for people in general and for the members of the ingroup, hence motivating the vaccination behavior.
Originality/value
The findings confirm that values encourage individuals to be vaccinated, due to their intrinsic motivation. This relationship did not appear to be clearly tested by previous empirical studies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Conflict of interest: We have no conflict of interest to disclose.
We hereby confirm that we have access to the original data on which the article reports.
Compliance with ethical standards: All procedures in the study were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institute of Psychology of the University of Brasília – Brazil, and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual adult participants included in the study.
Funding: This study was sponsored by the Brazilian Ministry of Education´s Public Security and Forensic Sciences Program – CAPES/PROCAD, grant no 88881.516167/2020-01.
Citation
Torres, C.V., Longo, C.A., Macedo, F.G.L. and Faiad, C. (2023), "COVID-19 vaccination in Brazilian public security agents: are human values good predictors?", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 46 No. 2, pp. 293-308. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-07-2022-0093
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited