Vaccination is among the most effective measures to prevent fatal disease outcomes of COVID-19. However, coverage has mostly fallen short of intended goals, and evidence on psychological determinants within certain high-risk groups (e.g., individuals with mental disorders) are inconclusive. This study aimed to examine the courses of COVID-19 vaccine-related health beliefs and their associations with psychopathology. We conducted a 16-wave longitudinal study from December 2020 to November 2022 assessing N = 1865 participants of the adult general population in Germany. Linear mixed-effects models were employed to examine courses of health beliefs (i.e., perceived risk and fear of SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 vaccine-specific beliefs) and associations with diagnostic status, depressive, anxiety, and somatic symptoms, as well as health anxiety. Pandemic-related threat appraisals showed significant changes over time, with perceived risk and fear of infection exhibiting notable fluctuations. In contrast, vaccine-specific beliefs remained relatively stable. We observed few practically meaningful between-person associations between specific psychopathological characteristics and health beliefs that diverged in terms of their favorability toward vaccination, but meaningful within-person associations were largely absent. Individuals with a mental disorder at study entry reported a significantly lower perceived risk of infection. The study revealed differential courses of COVID-19 vaccine-related health beliefs. Psychopathological characteristics play, at most, only a subordinate role in affecting vaccine-related health beliefs. Still, individuals with mental disorders should have been targeted more explicitly by public health interventions to foster awareness of their heightened risk.
Huth et al. (2026) studied this question.