Jennifer Anne Reich is an American sociologist, researcher and author at the

University of Colorado Denver The University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) is a public research university in Denver, Colorado. It is part of the University of Colorado system. History University of Colorado System Anschutz Medical Campus The University of Colorado creat ...

. Her research interests include healthcare, adolescence, welfare, and policy. Her work on

vaccine hesitancy Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...

gained widespread attention during the

2019 measles outbreaks Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Musi ...

. She is the author of three books and numerous journal articles.

Education

Reich attended

Calabasas High School Calabasas High School is a four-year high school in Calabasas, California, United States. Calabasas High School, which serves Calabasas and portions of West Hills, Los Angeles, is one of three high schools in the Las Virgenes Unified School Dist ...

and subsequently earned her B.A. at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...

and her M.A. and Ph.D. at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

. She has been a tenured professor at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

, where she was a faculty member for ten years and is currently a tenured and full professor at the

. Reich is a council member of the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...

Vaccine hesitancy

Reich spent nearly ten years exploring what motivates some parents to decline inoculations for their children, or delay them. Her interviews with parents and subsequent research are presented in her 2016 book ''Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines''. She sees vaccine hesitancy as a consequence of societal pressures on parents (especially middle-class mothers) to make choices that are uniquely suited to their own children in terms of health and education, to maximize their chances of success in life: "We do vaccines in a way that has been shown to be scientifically the most efficacious and the safest and also the easiest to distribute at a national level. But for parents who really prioritize each child in their family as an individual, they don't accept this kind of logic." Working full-time on their kids, these parents are inclined to disregard generic advice dispensed by health professionals. Facing a steady stream of misleading information, pediatricians and public health professionals have to know what motivates parents to be reluctant about vaccines, and to adjust how they communicate, says Reich. She suggests pediatricians have more success having a fruitful dialogue when they can communicate with empathy, parent-to-parent. How to put the focus on collective benefits - explaining own inoculation better protects all children - may be a way for public health authorities to overcome the reluctance of many parents.

Selected publications

Books

Selected journal articles

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reich, Jennifer Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women social scientists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century social scientists 20th-century social scientists American women sociologists University of California, Santa Barbara alumni University of California, Davis alumni University of Denver faculty University of Colorado Denver faculty American sociologists