Facilitating Development Research: Suggestions for Recruiting and Re-Recruiting Children and Families

Abstract

Recruiting children and families for research studies can be challenging, and re-recruiting former participants for longitudinal research can be even more difficult, especially when a study was not prospectively designed to encompass continuous data collection. In this article, we explain how researchers can set up initial studies to potentially facilitate later waves of data collection; locate former study participants using newer, often digital, tools; schedule families using recruitment phone/email/mail scripts that highlight the many benefits to continued study participation; and confirm appointments with other digital tools. We draw from prior methodological and longitudinal pieces to provide suggestions to others wishing to re-recruit families for longitudinal studies. In addition, we draw upon our own experience conducting a non-prospective longitudinal study 6 years after an educational intervention, in which we successfully re-located 122 (90%) and interviewed 101 of 136 (83% of the located sample and 74% of the full original sample) parents and their early adolescent children. Although the majority of participants were recruited via original contact information (especially phone numbers), using a range of strategies to recruit (e.g., search engines focused on contact information, social media) and motivate participation (e.g., multifaceted phone/email/mail scheduling scripts, flexibility in location and means of participation) yielded a more desirable sample size at relatively low costs.

Three-Year Longitudinal Study: Impact of a Blended Learning Program—Lexia® Core5® Reading—on Reading Gains in Low-SES Kindergarteners

“…The remaining students were excluded from analyses because they either left the school before the study was completed and/or did not receive the GRADE at all six time points. An average yearly attrition rate of 6% (15 students over three years) is considered low, especially for students from a low SES background (Hansen, Tobler, & Graham, 1990;Hurwitz, Schmitt, & Olsen, 2017).…”

Estrategias y determinantes para recuperar participantes tras 12 años: cohorte CHICAMOCHA, Bucaramanga, Colombia

“…Aunque la mayoría de reportes de estrategias de mantenimiento de cohortes derivan de países desarrollados 13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21 , y rara vez son descritas experiencias donde los intentos de recuperación ocurren tras largos periodos sin contacto; algunas de las estrategias y los resultados obtenidos en nuestro protocolo de recuperación son similares a los reportados en el estudio desarrollado por Hurwitz et al 17 . Pese a que la población difiere ampliamente (136 niños y sus familias, incluidos en el año 2010 en Chicago, EE.UU.…”

“…); los participantes de esta cohorte permanecieron unos 6 años sin contacto con los investigadores. En ese estudio se utilizaron secuencialmente: (1) llamadas telefónicas en diferentes horarios (hasta 2 intentos por cada número telefónico) y SMS, con tasa de contacto 55%; (2) envío de correo electrónico o correspondencia a domicilio (contacto 19%); (3) búsqueda en las redes sociales y bases de datos en línea -libres y pagadas-(contacto 16%) 17 . Allí la estrategia telefónica fue también el método que permitió la mayor tasa de recuperación, similar a esta experiencia.…”

“…Asimismo, nuestro estudio contactó a 122 (vs. 68) participantes por mes, usando el doble de tiempo para su ejecución. Finalmente, mientras Hurwitz et al 17 lograron una tasa de contacto global del 90% con las 3 estrategias, nuestro estudio requirió de 2 PRP paralelos que incorporaron 4 estrategias para obtener una tasa de contacto del 76,5%. Otros estudios norteamericanos reportan el uso de estrategias adicionales, como visitas domiciliarias, búsqueda en obituarios, documentos judiciales y registro de encarcelamiento, con secuencias de aplicación diferentes; que consistentemente reportan tasas de contacto superiores al 80% 18,19,20,21 .…”

Ethical issues in using the internet to engage participants in family and child research: A scoping review

“…Recruiting families via address-based sampling is also difficult in the context of increasing residential mobility, which is high among young and socially disadvantaged families (e.g., experiencing poverty, unemployment, relationship breakdown) [ 8 , 9 ] who are often the target of research. Maintaining contact with mobile families can be challenging in longitudinal research, especially if there are lengthy periods between data collection waves or if a prospective follow-up study was not part of the initial research design [ 10 ].…”