Online Recruitment of Young People for Research on Problematic Sexual Behavior

Youth are responsible for approximately 30% of the sexual harm cases involving children under age nine (termed nonconsensual sexual behavior hereafter). For a variety of reasons, young people who may initiate nonconsensual sexual behavior are not easily reached with prevention services or research. In the current study, we assess the feasibility of online recruitment of young people aged 14-21 years who may engage in nonconsensual sexual behavior to participate in a longitudinal survey study. A single animated advertisement was launched on Snapchat for approximately 2.5 weeks. Outcome measures included advertisement reach, impressions, and engagement. We reviewed the number of participants who completed each stage of participation and calculated the cost to obtain a participant at each stage based on the total advertisement spend during the study period. The advertisement was viewed 136,588 times by 86,746 users and achieved 1,572 click/swipes. The overall cost per click was $.59 USD. With an overall spend of $921.64 USD, the advertisement cost to recruit a potential participant was $1.07 USD. The cost to get a potential participant to each stage of participation incrementally increases with the final cost to attain a survey completion of $10.34 USD. This study provides evidence that it is both feasible and cost-effective to recruit the highly stigmatized, hard-to-reach population of youth at-risk for sexually harming children for research using a social media platform.