Recruitment

Adolescents and young people from all walks of life are spending a considerable amount of time on social media platforms, with the advent of COVID-19 further increasing time spent on mobile devices. This impacts approaches regarding how best to reach young people for recruitment into studies.

The strategies used and where to recruit from very much depends on context (where you’re conducting the research), as well as focus/topic of the research, and the target group you are trying to reach and the eligibility criteria, so perhaps start with an introduction around that, and then mention which approaches may be better under which circumstances.

Recruiting and retaining young people in research has always been a challenging aspect of research, yet, successful recruitment is essential for producing high-quality research. In trying to understand the intricacies of recruiting young people into research studies Moreno et al (2017) conducted a study to compare the effectiveness of traditional-in-person recruitment methods to social media when targeting adolescents (14 -18-year-old) as study participants. Their effectiveness assessment included screening and enrolment for each recruitment method, as well as time and resources spent on each recruitment method. They found that the traditional-in-person method had a limited reach, but had a greater enrolment and retention. The social media platform had a wider reach but with less commitment, enrolment and retention. However, the traditional-in-person method used less time compared to the social media recruitment process and more study participants were retained.

This station explores the various methods for recruiting and retaining adolescents and young people into research studies.

Strategies for recruiting adolescents:

Using social media for recruiting adolescents and hard-to-reach population groups is gaining more traction as was the case in the Prescott et al (2016) study that aimed at developing and refining a national recruitment strategy for reaching adolescent gay, bisexual and queer men online.

Sending and receiving back the parental consent forms and adolescent assent forms through emails as an option.

Printed flyers
Social media
Online classified adverts
Word of mouth
Respondent-driven sampling (A network-based sampling method that starts with a convenience sample and incentivises respondents not only to participate in the survey themselves but also to get their contacts from the target population to participate. Heckathorn, D, 2002)

How to recruit adolescents for research purposes

Schools are the best sites for recruiting and implementing research studies that are targeting adolescents. This is because through the school the researchers gain access to the legal guardians who have to give permission for the adolescent to participate in the research. In addition, in low-income-settings schools are often the only safe spaces for adolescents and the researchers and enjoy favourable relationship with various stakeholders in the community.

Bartlet et al (2017) identified various advantages for recruiting adolescents from schools and having school-based interventions:

School-based interventions may benefit children and adolescents whose access to services is limited, including individuals from racial, ethnic, or religious minorities, and those marginalized by their sex status or sexual orientation.
Studies involving adolescents from low-income-settings, for instance, may offer guidance, structure, and support for the adolescents.
Adolescents may be more likely to access a school-based health clinic than a community health facility
Adolescents spend the majority of their daily lives at school and school-based behavioural observation studies can observe young people’s social interactions that naturally occur in a school setting
Conducting research in school environments may assist investigators in understanding specific/targeted participant behaviours as well as intervening to address these behaviours

Health Clinics and Hangouts

For health research, it is often the case that health clinics or service providers are used as a recruiting environment. Other venues where adolescents’ hangout e.g., youth clubs, sports clubs, taxi ranks etc. are good recruitment areas.

Recruitment approach

Approaching potential young participants in a community setting is a great challenge that requires a well-considered recruitment strategy that includes:

how the study will be advertised (broadcast in local radio stations)?
which settings (social media and or word of mouth in schools and social gatherings)
what recruitment tools will be used (flyers),
which technological approaches will be used for recruitment (send SMS)
how to create interest in the study through these advertisement methods
how parental permission and assent will be obtained during screening and enrolment
how to make the screening process less cumbersome?

BY YOLISWA NTSEPE (MA, PhD)
ADOLESCENT PROGRAMMES MANAGER

UPDATED NOV 22, 2023

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