ABSTRACT
Immunization is a way to increase one’s immunity against an infectious and contagious disease. However, many parents still considered immunization was unsafe with many side effects, resulting to decision not to vaccinate their children. Immunization also raises anxiety and affects the coping mechanism of the family. This study aimed to identify the effect of psycho-education treatment on knowledge, levels of anxiety, and coping mechanisms of mothers towards immunization of their children. To answer th research problem, a series of experimental studies have been successfully carried out with a quasi-experimental pretest and post test design. The psychoeducation program was given for 8 sessions in 6 weeks for the experimental group as a comparison with the control group without giving any treatment. The total sample of this study population were 94 mothers who have children aged 1 month - 3 years old with incomplete immunizations and maternal age limits between 22–48 years old. Data collection showed that there was a significant influence between before (p=0.001) and after the implementation of psychoeducation (p=0.001) on knowledge (p=0.995), anxiety level (p=0.678), and family adaptive coping mechanisms (p=0.305) in accepting immunizations. The results of this study indicated that the effect of psychoeducation on increasing knowledge, decreasing anxiety, and adaptive coping mechanisms of the family in giving immunizations to their children. This study supported other studies conducted in other countries. Therefore, the psychoeducation program needs to be applied in order to increase family’s knowledge, overcoming anxiety issues, and to support adaptive coping mechanism in providing immunizations children.
