Recruiting and Retaining High-Risk Adolescents into Family-Based HIV Prevention Intervention Research

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies for a longitudinal, family-based HIV prevention intervention study targeting adolescents in psychiatric care by (1) determining consent rate (recruitment), rate of participation at the first intervention session (retention), and follow-up attendance rate (retention); and (2) examining socio-demographic factors, family-level processes, sexual risk-related indices, and intervention factors (i.e., treatment arm) associated with study retention. Only one-third of the families contacted ultimately enrolled in the study. 81% of those enrolled participated in the workshop and 72% attended the booster sessions with no significant differences between families on any variable based on attendance. Retention over 1 year was 85% and did not differ by treatment arm. Strategies employed were successful at retaining families once they were enrolled. Findings highlight barriers to enrollment for adolescents in psychiatric care and suggest that it may be critical to integrate HIV prevention programs within community-based mental health services in order to counteract recruitment challenges.

A Latent Profile Analysis Investigating Factors Impacting Latino Adolescents’ Attendance in Treatment

“…In other words, both family-based and individual treatment appeared to be equally appealing to families who did not experience problematic family functioning. It should also be noted that although some of the research in the field suggests that high externalizing symptoms might lead to fewer sessions whereas high internalizing might lead to higher numbers of sessions (Flannery-Schroeder et al, 2005;Galaif et al, 2001;Kapungo et al, 2011), within each of our profiles, internalizing and externalizing symptoms tended to move together, leading to families being categorized as showing either high or low adolescent psychiatric symptoms.…”

“…Empirical findings have been mixed on whether psychiatric symptoms affect treatment retention (Neumann et al, 2010). In psychosocial treatments for externalizing behaviors, higher problem severity has been linked to greater attrition (Galaif, Hser, Grella, & Joshi, 2001;Kapungo et al, 2011). Conversely, lower severity of internalizing behaviors has been related to greater attrition (Flannery-Schroeder, Choudhury, & Kendall, 2005).…”

Addressing the Challenges of Recruitment and Retention in Sleep and Circadian Clinical Trials

“…Strategy 1: Flexible Scheduling.-Time conflicts are frequently cited retention barriers (Kapungu et al, 2012;Pescud et al, 2015). Flexible scheduling is vital and at times requires staff willing to work evenings and weekends.…”

“…Both adolescents and low-income, minority adults face significant barriers to research participation. Barriers for adolescents include family/parental conflict, psychosocial stressors, time constraints, and peer stigma (Kapungu et al, 2012;Kealey et al, 2006;Rait et al, 2015). Barriers for low-income, minority adults include mistrust of research, economic and time constraints, unstable housing, lack of childcare, disease burden, and transportation (Ejiogu et al, 2011;Kim et al, 2014).…”

Associations Between Psychiatric Impairment and Sexual Risk Behavior Among Teens in Mental Health Treatment

“…Previous studies with the current sample have documented the influence of family factors on adolescent risk behavior (Hadley et al, 2009; Kapungu et al, 2012; Nappi et al, 2009), so we have chosen to focus on the relationships among psychopathology, personal, peer, and partner factors and youths’ sexual attitudes. We hypothesized that adolescent psychopathology (i.e., psychiatric impairment), would be associated with peer and partner relationships concerns (i.e., peer norms, partner rejection sensitivity) and individual (i.e., HIV-knowledge, and perceived vulnerability) factors.…”