Recruiting a Community Sample of African American Subjects: The Nuts and Bolts of a Successful Effort

Abstract

Recruiting a heterogeneous community sample of White and African American subjects for a research study is a challenging task. Researchers have frequently failed to recruit African Americans or to recruit racially balanced samples. This paper describes the experiences of one social work research team in recruiting a community sample of White and African American women. Specific strategies are presented as a primer for developing samples that are diverse and balanced sociodemographically. A recruitment model is proposed, including use of multiple strategies, simultaneous attention to each segment of the targeted population, and periodic midcourse correction. The results of our recruitment efforts suggest that attracting a sociodemographically balanced sample can be successful when appropriate strategies are implemented.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amodeo

, & Griffin

(1997). Parental alcoholism and other family disruptions: Adult outcomes among sisters. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 67, 585–593.

Areán

P. A.

, & Gallagher-Thompson

(1996). Issues and recommendations for the recruitment and retention of older ethnic minority adults into clinical research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 875–880.

Armstrong

T. D.

, Crum

L. D.

, Rieger

R. H.

, Bennett

T. A.

, & Edwards

L. J.

(1999). Attitudes of African Americans toward participation in medical research. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 552–574.

Ballard

E. L.

, Nash

, Raiford

, & Harrell

L. E.

(1993). Recruitment of Black elderly for clinical research studies of dementia: The CERAD experience. The Gerontologist, 33, 561–565.

Berg

J. A.

(1999). Gaining access to underresearched populations in women's health research. Health Care for Women International, 20, 237–243.

Biernacki

, & Waldorf

(1981). Snowball sampling: Problems and techniques in chain referral sampling. Sociological Methods and Research, 10, 141–163.

Black

(1981). It will never happen to me. Denver: MAC Publishing.

Chassin

, Barrera

Jr. , Bech

, & Kossak-Fuller

(1992). Recruiting a community sample of adolescent children of alcoholics: A comparison of three subject sources. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 53, 316–319.

Cochran

D. L.

(1997). African American fathers: A decade review of the literature. Families in Society, 78, 340–350.

10.

Cottler

L. B.

, Zipp

J. F.

, Robins

L. N.

, & Spitznagel

E. L.

(1987). Difficult-to-recruit respondents and their effect on prevalence estimates in an epidemiologic survey. American Journal of Epidemiology, 125, 329–339.

11.

Cromwell

R. E.

, Vaughan

C. E.

, & Mindel

C. H.

(1975). Ethnic minority family research in an urban setting: A process of exchange. American Sociologist, 10, 141–150.

12.

Delgado

(1999). Involvement of the Hispanic community in ATOD research. In De La Rosa

M. R.

, Segal

, & Lopez

(Eds.), Conducting drug abuse research with minority populations: Advances and issues (pp. 93–105). New York: Haworth.

13.

Demi

A. S.

, & Warren

N. A.

(1995). Issues in conducting research with vulnerable families. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 17, 188–202.

14.

Domenico

, & Windle

(1993). Intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning among middle-aged female adult children of alcoholics. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 659–666.

15.

Downs

W. R.

, & Robertson

J. F.

(1991). Random versus clinical samples: A question of inference. Journal of Social Service Research, 14, 57–83.

16.

Eaves

(1999). Family recruitment issues and strategies: Caregiving in rural African Americans. Nursing Research, 48, 183–187.

17.

Gamble

V. N.

(1997). Under the shadow of Tuskegee: African Americans and health care. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 1773–1778.

18.

Glasgow

R. E.

, & Hampson

S. E.

(1995). Recruiting older subjects for psychological studies of chronic disease: Are community volunteer and clinic-based samples equivalent? Psychology and Health, 10, 245–254.

19.

Gorelick

P. B.

, Harris

, Burnett

, & Bonecutter

F. J.

(1998). The recruitment triangle: Reasons why African Americans enroll, refuse to enroll, or voluntarily withdraw from a clinical trial. An interim report from the African-American Antiplatelet Stroke Prevention Study (AAASPS). Journal of the National Medical Association, 90, 141–145.

20.

Graham

(1992). “Most of the subjects were White and middle class”: Trends in published research on African Americans in selected APA journals, 1970–1989. American Psychologist, 47, 629–639.

21.

Griffin

, & Amodeo

(1998). Mixed psychosocial outcomes of sisters from families with alcoholic parents. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 24, 153–167.

22.

Griffin

, Amodeo

, Fassler

, Ellis

, & Clay

(2001). What is the effect of parental alcoholism on adult psychosocial adjustment among women? In: Abstracts from the 24th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 25 (Supple.), 797.

23.

Grinnell

R. M.

(1988). Social work research and evaluation (3rd ed.) Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock.

24.

Grunbaum

, Labarthe

D. R.

, Ayars

, Harrist

, & Nichaman

M. Z.

(1996). Recruitment and enrollment for Project Heartbeat! Achieving the goals of minority inclusion. Ethnicity and Disease, 3, 203–212.

25.

Harris

, & Dersch

C. A.

(1999). Conducting research on the Internet: Potential, concerns, and reflections. Kappa Omicron Nu FORUM, 11. Retrieved April 24, 2001 from http://www.kon.org/forum/harris.html.

26.

Hatchett

B. F.

, Holmes

, Duran

D. A.

, & Davis

(2000). African Americans and research participation: The recruitment process. Journal of Black Studies, 30, 664–675.

27.

Heckathorn

D. D.

(1997). Respondent-driven sampling: A new approach to the study of hidden populations. Social Problems, 44, 174–199.

28.

Hill

N. E.

(1997). Does parenting differ based on social class? African American women's perceived socialization for achievement. American Journal of Community Psychology, 25, 675–697.

29.

Holden

, Rosenberg

, Barker

, Tuhrim

, & Brenner

(1993). The recruitment of research participants: A review. Social Work in Health Care, 19, 1–44.

30.

Hooks

P. C.

, Tsong

, Baranowski

, Henske

J. C.

, Nader

P. R.

, & Levin

J. S.

(1988). Recruitment strategies for multiethnic family and community health research. Family and Community Health, 11, 48–59.

31.

Jackson

A. P.

, & Ivanoff

(1999). Reduction of low response rates in interview surveys of poor African-American families. Journal of Social Services Research, 25, 41–60.

32.

Kenny

M. C.

, & McEachern

A.G.

(2000). Racial, ethnic and cultural factors of childhood sexual abuse: A selected review of the literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 905–922.

33.

Lee

R. E.

, McGinnis

K. A.

, Sallis

J. F.

, Castro

C. F.

, Chen

A. H.

, & Hickmann

S.A.

(1997). Active vs. passive methods of recruiting ethnic minority women to a health promotion program. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 19, 378–384.

34.

McKinnon

, & Humes

(2000). The Black Population in the United States: March 1999. U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Reports, Series P20-530. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

35.

Mennen

F. E.

(1995). The relationship of race/ethnicity to symptoms in childhood sexual abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect, 19, 115–124.

36.

Milburn

N. G.

, Gary

L. E.

, Booth

J. A.

, & Brown

D. R.

(1992). Conducting epidemiologic research in a minority community: Methodological considerations. Journal of Community Psychology, 19, 3–12.

37.

Nápoles-Springer

A. M.

, Grumbach

, Alexander

, Moreno-John

, Forté

, Rangel-Lugo

, & Pérez-Stable

E. J.

(2000). Clinical research with older African Americans and Latinos. Research on Aging, 22, 668–691.

38.

National Institutes of Health (2000). NIH Guidelines on the inclusion of women and minorities as subjects in clinical research, updated August 1, 2000. Retrieved April 26, 2001 from http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/womenmin/guidelinesupdate.htm.

39.

Neal

A. M.

, & Turner

S. M.

(1991). Anxiety disorders research with African Americans: Current status. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 400–410.

40.

Olejnik

S. F.

, & Doeyan

J. D.

(1982). Soliciting teacher participants for classroom research. Journal of Educational Research, 75, 165–168.

41.

Patrick

J. H.

, Pruchno

R. A.

, & Rose

M. S.

(1998). Recruiting research participants: A comparison of the costs and effectiveness of five recruitment strategies. The Gerontologist, 38, 295–302.

42.

Picot

S. F.

, Stuckey

J. C.

, Humphrey

S. W.

, Smyth

K. A.

, & Whitehouse

P. J.

(1996). Cultural assessments and the recruitment and retention of African Americans in Alzheimer's disease research. Journal of Aging and Ethnicity, 1, 5–18.

43.

Rodrigues

(August 15, 2001). Immigrants reshaping Black experience. The Boston Globe.

44.

Roberson

N. L.

(1994). Clinical trial participation: Viewpoints from racial/ethnic groups. Cancer (Supple.), 74, 2687–2691.

45.

Rubin

, & Babbie

(1997). Research methods for social work, 3rd edition. New York: Brooks/Cole.

46.

Shavers-Hornaday

V. L.

, Lynch

C. F.

, Burmeister

L. F.

, & Torner

J. C.

(1997). Why are African Americans under-represented in medical research studies? Impediments to participation. Ethnicity and Health, 2, 31–45.

47.

Smith

M. A.

, & Leigh

(1997). Virtual subjects: Using the Internet as an alternative source of subjects and research environment. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 29, 496–505.

48.

Stoy

D. B.

, Curtis

, Dameworth

K. S.

, Dowdy

A. A.

, Hegland

, Levin

J. A.

, & Sousoulas

B. G.

(1995). The successful recruitment of elderly Black subjects in a clinical trial: The CRISP experience. Journal of the National Medical Association, 87, 280–287.

49.

Swanson

G. M.

, & Ward

A. J.

(1995). Recruiting minorities into clinical trials: Toward a participant-friendly system. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 87, 1747–1759.

50.

Thompson

M. G.

, Heller

, & Rody

C. A.

(1994). Recruitment challenges in studying late-life depression: Do community samples adequately represent depressed older adults? Psychology and Aging, 9, 121–125.

51.

Thompson

E. E.

, Neighbors

H. W.

, Munday

, & Jackson

J. S.

(1996). Recruitment and retention of African American patients for clinical research: An exploration of response rates in an urban psychiatric hospital. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 861–867.

52.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1999). Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1998 (Update), Current Population Reports, Series P20-514. Retrieved, January 2, 2001 from http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/ms-la/tabch-3.txt.

53.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2000a). Poverty, 1999—data from the March 2000 supplement to the Current Population, Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 1, 2001 from http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/poverty99/pov99hi.html.

54.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2000b). Census 2000 Redistricting Data (Public Law 94–171) Summary File, Matrices PL1, PL2, PL3 and PL4.

55.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2000c). Current population survey, 1997, 1998, 1999. Income, 1999. (three-year average medians). Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 2, 2001 from http://www.census.gove/hhes/income99/99tableb.html.

56.

Weiss

R. S.

(1994). Learning from strangers: The art and method of qualitative interview studies. Macmillan: New York.

57.

Woititz

J. G.

(1983). Adult children of alcoholics. Pompano Beach, Florida: Health Communications.

58.

Young

C. L.

, & Dombrowski

(1989). Psychosocial influences on research subject recruitment, enrollment, and retention. Social Work in Health Care, 14, 43–57.

59.

Young

R. F.

, Edevie

, Young

J. H.

, & Peters

(1996). Issues of recruitment and retention in Alzheimer's research among African and White Americans. Journal of Aging and Ethnicity, 1, 19–25.