A Comparison of Two Methods for Recruiting Children with an Intellectual Disability.
BACKGROUND
Recruitment is a widely cited barrier of representative intellectual disability research, yet it is rarely studied. This study aims to document the rates of recruiting children with intellectual disabilities using two methods and discuss the impact of such methods on sample characteristics.


METHODS
Questionnaire completion rates are compared between (i) participants being approached in child development centre waiting rooms and (ii), one year later, the same participants being invited to take part by phone, email and/or post.


RESULTS
The face-to-face recruitment method resulted in a better recruitment rate (58.5% compared to 18.5%) and a larger sample (n = 438) than the telephone/email/post sample (n = 40). It also required less hours of researcher time per completed questionnaire.


CONCLUSIONS
In-line with previous research, recruitment of participants with intellectual disabilities (or their parents/carers) requires significant time and resources to get a sample of an acceptable size.
Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Dawn
D
Adams
Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.|Clinical Psychology Doctorate, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Louise
L
Handley
Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Mary
M
Heald
Division of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
Doug
D
Simkiss
Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Alison
A
Jones
Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Emily
E
Walls
Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Chris
C
Oliver
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D018579:Patient Selection; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
intellectual disabilities; questionnaire; recruitment; response rates