Document Type

Conference Presentation

Embargo Period

5-14-2026

Publication Date

Spring 5-22-2026

Department

Academic Affairs Faculty

Abstract

Recruiting participants for sensitive health research on social media presents unique ethical and methodological challenges. This session shares lessons learned from a qualitative study examining how young adults in South Carolina use TikTok to seek sexual health information. The presentation highlights creative and trauma-informed recruitment strategies that successfully engaged a hard-to-reach population while maintaining participant trust and privacy. Attendees will learn how recruitment language, social media algorithms, and transparency practices shape engagement, and why building trust matters more than technology alone. The session also considers how these lessons can inform future research in health sciences librarianship, especially for librarians supporting or conducting studies with marginalized or stigmatized communities. By reframing recruitment as a relational process rather than a procedural one, this session offers practical insights for designing inclusive, ethical, and participant-centered approaches to digital research. From a broader perspective, this study underscores the value of librarian-researcher collaboration in supporting equitable and ethical recruitment. Health and medical librarians are particularly well-positioned to advise on privacy-preserving data practices, inclusive communication strategies, and digital literacy principles that ensure participants’ rights and safety are prioritized.

Objectives:

Describe common methodological and ethical challenges in recruiting hard-to-reach or stigmatized populations for health research conducted in digital environments. Identify trust-centered and trauma-informed recruitment practices that balance participant care with methodological rigor. Evaluate how language choice, transparency, and platform affordances shape participant engagement and data quality. Apply lessons from this case study to support or conduct equitable, participant-centered recruitment in their own research or when advising faculty and community partners.

Methods:

This study employed a dual-method qualitative design combining semi-structured interviews and digital walkthroughs to explore how young adults in South Carolina seek and interpret sexual health information on social media. The research was conducted remotely, enabling participants to demonstrate their information-seeking behaviors directly within the digital environments they regularly use, including TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit. Twenty participants aged 18–25, representing diverse gender, sexual orientation, and cultural backgrounds, were recruited using trust-centered, trauma-informed strategies developed through iterative testing of recruitment materials across multiple platforms. Recruitment emphasized participant care and ethical transparency. Materials were customized to each platform’s moderation policies to avoid suppression of sexual health–related language. Participants were invited through organic social media posts, university and community partnerships, and peer referrals. Screening and consent processes prioritized privacy, autonomy, and emotional wellbeing, allowing participants to skip sensitive questions or pause walkthroughs as needed. Interviews and walkthroughs were recorded with participant consent, transcribed, and coded thematically using reflexive thematic analysis. The focus of this paper centers on the recruitment phase, highlighting how iterative adjustments built trust with participants

Results:

Preliminary findings indicate that recruitment effectiveness hinged on trust, transparency, and language choice rather than the platform. Neutral, curiosity-based framing increased engagement, while clinical or risk-oriented language reduced it. Algorithmic moderation required adaptive phrasing and timing, and snowball sampling through peer networks proved most successful. These results highlight recruitment as an act of care, grounded in empathy, privacy, and participant agency. For health sciences librarians, this study demonstrates how trauma-informed, trust-centered recruitment practices can strengthen ethically responsible research design and support faculty and community partners working with hard-to-reach or stigmatized populations.

Conclusions: This study concludes that recruitment for sensitive, digitally mediated health research must be reframed as an ethical, relational process rather than a procedural one. Across platforms, transparency, neutral framing, and participant agency were critical to building trust with young adults discussing stigmatized topics such as sexual health. Emerging trends in the field, particularly the rise of algorithmic moderation and growing attention to trauma-informed research, underscore the need for adaptable, care-centered methodologies. For health sciences librarians, these findings highlight expanding roles as research partners who can guide ethical recruitment design, privacy-conscious data practices, and inclusive communication strategies that ensure marginalized voices are represented responsibly.

Description

Presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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