Recruiting cisgender female couples for health disparity-focused daily diary research: challenges, successes, and lessons learned

ABSTRACT

The underlying mechanisms of sexual minority women’s (SMW’s) physical and mental health disparities are not well understood. Relationship factors are particularly understudied, and data are rarely collected from both same-sex female partners. Most research is cross sectional limiting our understanding of day-to-day experiences. This paper describes the feasibility of recruiting a large sample of SMW and their female partners for a disparity-focused daily diary study investigating alcohol use and mental health. A firm specializing in sexual minority market research assisted with recruitment from multiple sources and conducted an initial pre-screening of SMW and their female partners, at least one of whom drank alcohol regularly. A total of 4182 individuals completed the pre-screener, and information for 930 individuals (465 couples) was sent to the research team. Then, 376 individuals (188 couples) completed the study screener, met the inclusion criteria, and were invited to participate. Ultimately, 326 individuals (163 couples) consented and completed baseline. A total of 321 individuals, from 162 couples, began the daily diary portion of the study. Compliance with study procedures was excellent. The use of multiple recruitment sources increased the diversity of the sample. Challenges to recruitment, changes in protocol, and characteristics of the final sample are discussed.RM

KEYWORDS:

• Same-sex couples
• lesbian
• recruitment
• daily diary
• alcohol use
• mental health

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [K01AA023849,R15AA020424]; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities [R01MD012598].

Notes on contributors

Robin J. Lewis

Robin J. Lewis, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Old Dominion University and Director of Clinical Training at the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology. Her research focuses broadly on sexual minority health. She is particulary interested in examining the underlying mechansims of health disparities among sexual minority women.

Charlotte A. Dawson

Charlotte Dawson, B.A., is a Doctoral Student in the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology. Her research focuses on sexual minority women’s health, including better understanding health disparities, the role of sexual minority stress, and protective factors. She is also interested in women’s health more broadly and romantic relationships.

Alexander T. Shappie

Alexander T. Shappie, Ph.D. is a graduate of the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology and is currently a Staff Psychologist at the University of Washington Counseling Center. Alex’s research interests include investigating how heteronormativity and sexual stigma intersect with various aspects of identity to impact health, well-being, and interpersonal functioning among sexual minorities. Alex is also interested in developing recruitment and retention strategies that improve inclusion of people of colour within psychological research, especially queer people of colour.

Abby L. Braitman

Abby L. Braitman, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Health Psychology Concentration in the Department of Psychology at Old Dominion University and affiliated with the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology. Her research focuses on heavy episodic drinking and other health behaviours among emerging adults, particularly techniques to strengthen and extend interventions directed at harm reduction, and socio-cognitive influences of health. Specifically, she is interested in identifying technology-based techniques easily adoptable at institutions for mass implementation. Additionally, she is interested in quantitative methods, specifically longitudinal data analysis and approaches to accommodate substance use outcomes.

Kristin E. Heron

Kristin E. Heron, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Old Dominion University and in the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology. Her expertise is in the design and implementation of research studies that use ecological momentary assessment (EMA) or related approaches to collect real-time data in people’s everyday lives. Her research focuses on understanding real-world processes related to a range of health behaviours, including disordered eating, body image, physical activity, and substance use, among others. She is especially interested in health behaviours in minority populations, including sexual and racial minorities.