Recruitment and Retention of Latino Immigrant Families in Prevention Research

The development and testing of culturally competent interventions relies on the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority
populations. Minority immigrants are a population of keen interest given their widespread growth, needs, and contributions
to communities in which they settle, and particularly recent immigrants from Mexico and Central and South American countries.
However, recruitment and retention strategies for entirely immigrant samples are rarely discussed in the literature. The current
article describes lessons learned from two family-focused longitudinal prevention research studies of Latino immigrants in
Oregon—the Adolescent Latino Acculturation Study (ALAS) and the Latino Youth and Family Empowerment Project-II (LYFE-II).
Social, legal, economic, and political contexts are considered that shape Latino immigrants’ experiences in their home countries
as well as in the United States. The implications of these contexts for effective recruitment and retention strategies are
discussed.