"Not If, but When": Sex, Risk, and Trust in Timing Gardasil Vaccine Decisions, An Exploratory Study among Healthcare Providers and Middle-Class Parents in the U.S.

Author

Kathleen Marie Brelsford, University of South FloridaFollow

Graduation Year

2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Anthropology

Major Professor

Nancy Romero-Daza

Committee Member

Linda M. Whiteford, PhD, MPH

Committee Member

Heide Castañeda, PhD, MPH

Committee Member

Julie Baldwin, PhD

Committee Member

Ellen M. Daley, PhD

Keywords

decision-making, HPV, immunization, medical anthropology, sexuality

Abstract

This dissertation research explores how values regarding sexuality, morality, responsibility, protection, trust, and risk — expressed through parent, daughter, and healthcare provider relationships and interactions — inform parental decisions regarding the Gardasil® vaccine. In particular, the research examines the competing and conflicting meanings that parents and providers ascribe to vaccination and how actors position the vaccine within a wider set of negotiated, value–laden discourses. Because these narratives are situated within a larger structural field that shapes the landscape in which providers and parents interact, relevant historical and structural factors, including vaccine policy, cost, and compensation are discussed.

Scholar Commons Citation

Brelsford, Kathleen Marie, ""Not If, but When": Sex, Risk, and Trust in Timing Gardasil Vaccine Decisions, An Exploratory Study among Healthcare Providers and Middle-Class Parents in the U.S." (2011). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/3716