Vaccination hesitancy among parents was known and found before the COVID-19 era, as parents across different cultures were reportedly hesitant to vaccinate their children in general (Agrawal et al., 2020; MacDonald, 2015). World Health Organization (WHO) defined vaccine hesitancy as individuals delay or decline vaccination even though services are readily available (MacDonald, 2015). The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) a worldwide pandemic in December 2019 (Mohamadian et al., 2021). Developing a vaccine was set to be a unified global target as vaccination is one of the main strategies to overcome infectious pandemics (Habas et al., 2020; Russell & Greenwood, 2021). With the racing global focused efforts, different vaccines were developed and made available in the markets to start a global vaccination campaign after obtaining emergency approvals of regulatory bodies (Habas et al., 2020). The campaign initially went on the rollout for adults (>18 years of age) and was approved to vaccinate children and adolescents between 12 and 18 years old. After that, it was also approved for children above five years of age (Russell & Greenwood, 2021). Vaccinating children against COVID-19 seems to be a potential way to help block the chain of infection and transmission of the pandemic, as seen earlier during a comparable pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Biggs et al., 2020; Nikolopoulou & Maltezou, 2022).

Nevertheless, the COVID-19 vaccination campaign was met with reported population resistance across the globe, especially for children (Dubé et al., 2022). Various research have shown the association between various factors and parents' hesitancy to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. It includes factors related to the parents' sociodemographic characteristics, including their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about COVID-19 disease and the vaccination (Abuhammad et al., 2022; Bateyi Mustafa et al., 2023; Horiuchi et al., 2021).

Zhang et al. (2021) reported that 52.5% of Chinese parents were hesitant to give their children the COVID-19 vaccination. Likewise, 49.8% of parents were not likely or highly unlikely to vaccinate their children in Northwest Wisconsin (Mangat et al., 2022). The median acceptance percentage in the scoping review of 34 recent studies was 53.70%, indicating a low level of public willingness to vaccinate children (Liu et al., 2022). Furthermore, Galanis et al. (2022) systematic review and meta-analysis showed that 60.1% of parents intend to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, 22.9% refuse, and 25.8% are unsure.

Concerns regarding the vaccine's safety and effectiveness are often driven by fear of adverse effects and uncertainty about the long-term consequences (Lazarus et al., 2021). Additionally, reluctant parents concerned about the risks of COVID-19 and the benefits of vaccination, a common problem is a lack of information about the disease and the vaccine (Malik et al., 2020; Ng et al., 2022). Also, belief in conspiracy theory and distrust of health institutions may play a significant role in vaccine hesitancy, as some individuals may believe that the vaccine is part of a larger political or societal agenda (Bierwiaczonek et al., 2020).

The WHO experts group continued their work during the COVID-19 pandemic and published the guidelines addressing COVID-19 priorities. The latest guideline was posted on January 21, 2022, stating that children and adolescents are still under the lowest priority to receive COVID-19 vaccines (World Health Organization, 2022). In Jordan, the use of COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 18 was first approved on July 25, 2021, for children over the age of 12, but on November 2021, COVID-19 vaccines were authorized for use in children over the age of 5, and schools began contacting children after obtaining parental approval (Jordanian Ministry of Health, 2023).

There was very little evidence of how COVID-19 affected children during its early outbreak in Jordan. This was due in part to the fact that children were less likely to be tested for the virus and in part to the fact that they were less likely to develop severe symptoms. Consequently, Jordan's health authorities did not prioritise or mandate immunisations for children. However, as more information has been accessible, children are equally vulnerable to COVID-19 as adults are, and the virus can still cause life-threatening illnesses. As a result, Jordan's health authorities now urge that all children above five get vaccinated against COVID-19 (Alqutob et al., 2020). Unfortunately, comprehensive data specific to childhood COVID-19 vaccination rates in Jordan is currently unavailable; however, around 4,553,873 of Jordanian population have been vaccinated with a second dose (August 19, 2022) (Jordanian Ministry of Health, 2023).

The situation is similar to the global scene where the novelty, severity, and government responses and actions toward the COVID-19 pandemic made it “Infodemic”. Information was spread drastically on official and social channels with many contradicting theories, conspiracies, expectations, and statements (Zarocostas, 2020). Conspiracies toward COVID-19 vaccination campaigns continued and were explored in different research efforts (Bierwiaczonek et al., 2020; Sallam et al., 2021). Lack of information about the disease and vaccinations, the influence of information transmitted via social media, distrust of regulatory and official health agencies, and various sociodemographic characteristics were identified to be potential predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy rates (Abuhammad et al., 2022; Al-Mohaithef & Padhi, 2020; Hamdan-Mansour et al., 2022; Masa'deh et al., 2023; Sallam et al., 2021).

The purpose of this study was to investigate vaccine hesitancy among Jordanian parents about the vaccination of their children aged 5 to 18. It is set to understand the determinants of any hesitancy if found toward vaccinating children against COVID-19 as a part of the ongoing national vaccination campaign. Moreover, the specific research questions that guided the present study were:

What is the level of the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy vaccine among Jordanian parents of their children aged 5 to 18?

What are the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy reasons among Jordanian parents of their children aged 5 to 18?

Are there significant differences in the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy based on sociodemographic characteristics, vaccine hesitancy reasons, and vaccine conspiracy beliefs among Jordanian parents of their children aged 5 to 18?

What are the predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Jordanian parents of their children aged 5 to 18?