Introduction to the science of recruitment and retention among ethnically diverse populations

Recruitment and retention of research participants is evolving with the changing demographics of the American population, in particular its growing diversity. The cultural-historical background and sociopolitical conditions of each diverse group poses unique challenges in developing successful recruitment and retention methods and strategies. This critical collection of articles demonstrates important theoretical and conceptual frameworks that seek to address the shortcomings of previous models of recruiting diverse populations. Understanding the key components of cultural distinctions, such as values and beliefs, community cohesion, and collective history, has proven to be instrumental in reaching out to these diverse groups. This important strategy has allowed researchers to overcome the barriers that have been fostered in the past and has built the trust necessary to move forward into an inclusive approach to aging research. Not to be overlooked, an important factor to achieving success in recruitment and retention of diverse populations is having access to resources that allow for ongoing connection with research participants.