Using national data from MyVoice of people between the ages of 14 and 24 taken at several points in 2020, researchers from the University of Michigan find a clear theme: that most young people are taking COVID-19 seriously and trying to follow public health guidance, and that many of them they are motivated by the desire to protect others.
But just as with older generations, a shrinking but still sizable minority of people age 14 to 24 say they’re not willing to get vaccinated, or that their decision will depend on safety.
That makes it crucial for public health authorities, health care providers and others to create vaccination-related materials that reach young people in ways that are relevant to them.
The data, from the text-message-based MyVoice, a national survey of youth age 14 to 24 years based at the University of Michigan, are published in a new paper in the Journal of Adolescent Health, and supplemented by new polling data just received in the past week.
MyVoice is proud to join esteemed pollsters and surveys like Gallup, Marist, and Pew Research as a new member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Transparency Initiative (TI). The The goal of the Transparency Initiative is to promote methodological openness, disclosure, and transparency in research design by supporting survey organizations in creating and utilizing simple and efficient means for disclosing methodology when publicly disseminating results.
The Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) in partnership with faculty and research staff from Michigan Medicine helped us host the 2021 MyVoice Data Challenge on Youth Health and Wellness. The goal of the virtual team event was to get students and learners involved in how MyVoice makes sense of the hundreds of thousands of text messages we receive as part of our weekly survey to American youth. Teams were tasked with creating processes using data science methodologies that would analyze MyVoice data and develop new methods for deriving meaning and given two months to work on their best ideas.
Shortly after the United States saw major changes to a federal policy on reproductive health in 2019, MyVoice asked our cohort of youth what they thought. They responded in over 5,000 text messages to us, as part of an October 2019 text message poll on Title X. Those responses were synthesized by a team of MyVoice researchers and summarized in a paper published in the academic research journal Contraception, just last month. The paper is titled “Youth opinions about Title X funding and policy in the United States: A mixed methods text message survey” and was featured in a podcast discussion with the journal’s editors. Stream the episode via Apple Podcast or on the web.
In a live webinar hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, MyVoice researcher and University of Michigan student Xochitl Amaro joined a panel of experts to discuss campus COVID-19 testing strategies and to share MyVoicers’ experiences across the country, collected through the MyVoice national poll of youth. The title of the talk, held February 22, 2021, was “Adoption and Implementation of Campus COVID-19 Testing Strategies: Webinar.” The goal of the event was to highlight key lessons about campus COVID-19 testing programs, share additional available resources, and extend beyond scientific and technical aspects of testing to encompass how uptake of successful testing programs intersects with decisions about how to operate safely and how to manage the pandemic in campus communities.