Recruitment and Retention of Adolescents in a Smoking Trajectory Study: Who Participates and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Recruitment of adolescents into tobacco use research is often challenging. This study reports on the predictors of recruitment and retention in a longitudinal study of adolescent smoking behavior. In 2000, 8th and 10th grade students at 18 schools (N = 5,298) in the Chicago metropolitan area completed brief screening surveys; 1457 students (ranging from susceptible nonsmokers to regular smokers) were invited to participate in a longitudinal study, and 48.9% agreed. Chi-square analyses revealed that female and white students were more likely to participate than male and nonwhite students. Recruitment rates did not vary by parental smoking status, students' experience with smoking, or student grade. Multivariate analyses revealed that overall, gender and race were significant predictors of participation. Chi-square and multivariate analyses revealed no significant differences in retention on the demographic, smoking experience, or psychosocial variables measured. Implications of the results and study limitations are discussed.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• smoking
• recruitment
• retention

Notes

¹There were more susceptible nonsmokers than could be enrolled into the study. Equal numbers of susceptible males and females were randomly selected to receive invitations. The sample of regular smokers was designed to be smaller than the other categories and only recruited from 10th graders.

²15 invitation packets were returned to us by the postal system; we were unable to obtain updated addresses for these students.

³As a result of the EMA portion of the longitudinal study, we had an upper limit on the number of students who could be enrolled at a given school. The upper limit was the total number of palmtop computers available.