Challenges recruiting diverse youth for physical activity research

[Extract] Public health research applies participatory research strategies that target youth to identify the causes of, and solutions to, health concerns (e.g., childhood obesity) more now than in the past. The field, however, has not yet overcome the challenges to effectively recruit youth, particularly low-income youth of color who are at high risk for physical activity-related health problems (Yancey et al., 2006; Fredricks and Simpkins, 2012). Recruiting representative samples of diverse youth in research can generate tailored understandings of the health challenges faced by low-income youth, youth of color, and youth from urban and rural communities. Much has been written about the broader difficulties of recruiting adult participants and the more specific challenges of recruiting participants from underrepresented groups (Yancey et al., 2006; Newington and Metcalfe, 2014; Archibald and Munce, 2015). While most studies recruit participants from one or two underrepresented groups, this paper focuses on the nuanced challenges of recruiting multiple subgroups of low-income youth of color for physical activity-related studies.