Objective To explore the factors influencing parents′ intention to vaccinate their daughters against HPV among primary and secondary school students based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model, thus providing evidence for improving the HPV vaccination rate among adolescent girls.

Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in November 2024. A multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method was employed to select 1 276 parents with at least one daughter aged 9 to 14 from Xiangcheng district, Suzhou city. Data on parents′ intention to vaccinate their daughters against HPV and associated influencing factors were collected, with subgroup analyses performed according to parents′ gender.

Results Among the 1 276 participants, 89.0% were mothers. Although 64.42% of parents expressed intention to vaccinate their daughters against HPV, the actual vaccination rate was only 14.73%. Maternal own intention to be vaccinated emerged as the strongest associated factor of their daughters′ HPV vaccination across all models (total population: OR = 14.85, 95%CI: 9.95–22.16; mothers: OR = 14.22, 95%CI: 9.35–21.62; fathers: OR = 69.08, 95%CI: 9.78–488.01). Gender-stratified analyses revealed that HPV knowledge significantly influenced vaccination intention only among fathers (OR = 1.59, 95%CI: 1.08–2.32), while perceived susceptibility (OR = 1.31, 95%CI: 1.02–1.67), social norms (OR = 1.84, 95%CI: 1.28–2.66), anticipated regret (OR = 1.66, 95%CI: 1.26–2.18), and self-efficacy (OR = 2.86, 95%CI: 1.67–4.90) were significant predictors among mothers. Perceived barriers were a significant negative predictor across all groups (total population: OR = 0.41, 95%CI: 0.30–0.55; mothers: OR = 0.41, 95%CI: 0.30–0.57; fathers: OR = 0.23, 95%CI: 0.06–0.89). The IMB model demonstrated good explanatory power for parents′ intention of HPV vaccination for their daughters.

Conclusions Parents′ intention to vaccinate their daughters against HPV is influenced by multiple factors and exhibits significant gender differences. The IMB model offers an effective theoretical framework for understanding the influencing factors in parents′ decision-making regarding HPV vaccination for their daughters.