Articles
Focus groups with African American adolescents: Enhancing recruitment and retention in intervention studies*,**

https://doi.org/10.1053/jpdn.2001.23151Get rights and content

Abstract

This study explores African American adolescents' perceptions about recruitment and retention strategies for intervention studies. Fifteen African American adolescents, ages 13 and 17 years, participated in this focus group study. Adolescents attended one of three groups which varied by size, gender, and the type of chronic condition: well adolescents (n = 7), adolescents with sickle cell disease (n = 5), and adolescents with diabetes (n = 3). Each group of adolescents participated in two group sessions. Content analyses of the two major categories in the study, recruitment and retention, yielded 10 themes. These themes included adolescents' (1) knowledge about their disease; (2) attitudes and expectations of self-care classes; (3) expectations about the research interventions; (4) instructor characteristics; (5) relationships with the researchers; (6) logistical considerations, such as time, location, and setting of interventions; (7) involvement and choice during the intervention; (8) relationships with other teens; (9) incentives for participation, such as food, fun, and money; and (10) the role of health care providers in recruitment and retention for research studies. Copyright © 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company

Section snippets

Review of the literature

Knowledge regarding the effectiveness of skill development as a protective factor against health compromising behaviors in various contexts needs to be applied to the design of health promotion interventions for diverse populations of youth (NINR, 1993; Broome, 1998). Crucial to successful health promotion activities is the identification of intervention methods, activities, language and communication styles that relate to the expectations and values of adolescent groups and their models of

Method

This study sought to answer the following question: What specific incentives, conditions, strategies, and investigator characteristics do adolescents identify as necessary to recruit and retain adolescents in an intervention study? This study used focus group interviews as a precursor to a quasi-experimental study designed to determine the efficacy of a self-care intervention for adolescents with a chronic pain condition. The primary function of the focus groups was to collect qualitative data

Findings

Ten themes emerged within the two major categories of recruitment and retention.

Discussion

Adolescents are at high risk for drop-out or attrition in research studies (Crowe & Billingsley, 1993; Millstein et al., 1993). Few studies have obtained adolescents' perceptions in regards to increasing retention of teens in studies. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the unique perspectives of African American adolescents regarding recruitment and retention for intervention studies. Findings from this study reveal that the use of focus groups did generate data about what will and will

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the adolescents and their parents who participated and shared their time and ideas, as well as Gwen Lea, BSN, Joan Totka, MSN, and Evelyn Brown, MSN for assisting in recruitment of the adolescents who participated, and Beth Rodgers, PhD for assisting with the data analysis process.

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    *

    Supported by a minority supplement grant to Dr. Clark Jones from National Institute of Nursing Research (1 RO1 NR04080-01S1), Marion E. Broome (PI).

    **

    Address reprint requests to Marion E. Broome, RN, PhD, FAAN, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294. E-mail: [email protected]

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