Abstract
Background Health disparities between people with and without a migration background remain a persistent issue across Europe, with individuals from non-European immigrant backgrounds often experiencing particularly negative outcomes. These populations also face higher risks of infection-related cancers, including those caused by Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Vaccination programs have the potential to mitigate such disparities. In the Netherlands, this potential is undermined by the low uptake among certain groups, especially individuals of Turkish and Moroccan origin, who represent two of the largest non-European ethnic minorities in the country. The underlying reasons for this low uptake are rarely explored in depth. This study, therefore, focuses on parents of Turkish and Moroccan origin living in the Netherlands, exploring their perspectives on HPV vaccination for their children aged 7 to 9 years. Building on the Health Belief Model, the study also considers how potentially gendered norms and expectations may influence parents’ attitudes toward vaccinating sons versus daughters. Methods Q-methodology, a research technique that combines qualitative and quantitative methods to systematically study people’s subjective viewpoints, was used to gain insights into parents’ perspectives on HPV vaccination. 29 parents of Turkish or Moroccan origin in the Netherlands with children aged 7–9 were asked to rank 30 statements based on the Health Belief Model between April 2024 and January 2025. After ranking the statements, respondents were asked to explain the reasoning behind their rankings. By-factor analysis was used to identify distinct perspectives. The qualitative material was used to verify and refine the interpretation of the perspectives. Results Three distinct perspectives were identified: 1. “Distrust, Uncertainty and Negative experiences as Barriers to Vaccination”, 2. HPV-Specific Vaccine Hesitancy: Concerns About Early-Age Vaccination and Necessity, and 3. Vaccination as key to preventing HPV-related disease. Conclusion This study highlights the diversity of parental perspectives on HPV vaccination within Turkish and Moroccan communities in the Netherlands. While some parents support HPV vaccination as a preventive measure, others express great hesitancy. The root of this hesitancy differs somewhat between subgroups of vaccine-hesitant *Correspondence: Enise Çayci cayci@eshpm.eur.nl Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless