Using Research to Understand Hard to Reach Audiences

Background:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention is developing an initiative to promote respectful, nonviolent dating relationships for 11 to 14-year-old youth in high-risk, inner-city communities (YHRICC).  Due to concentrated poverty, lack of resources, and exposure to community violence, YHRICC may be at an increased risk of teen dating violence (TDV).  In addition, few, if any, TDV prevention programs exist for this audience.  In addition to 11 to 14-year-olds, as part of the initiative CDC plans to engage 15 to 18-year-olds who have significant influence on their younger peers, to help reinforce messages about healthy dating relationships.

Program background:  As part of this initiative, an in-depth understanding of YHRICC is essential to inform and develop communications messages that reach and resonate with this audience.  Crucial to informing the initiative are insights into YHRICC beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in relation to family, peer and dating relationships.  Other important factors include their goals and ambitions, concerns and stresses, media and technology access, habits, and interests, school involvement, and hobbies.  Since this audience has traditionally been underserved, very little information about them is available, published or otherwise.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  With little psychographic information on YHRICC available, research must be conducted using a multi-faceted approach.  Our research approach includes three phases.  Phase I involves a literature review of peer-reviewed journals, articles, and analyses on YHRICC, as available, given that little has been published on YHRICC.  Phase II involves supplementing the literature review findings with secondary research using non-academic sources such as market research databases and trend reports.  Finally, phase III involves conducting qualitative research (e.g. small group discussion) with boys and girls ages 11-18 in multiple inner-city communities.  The groups will be segmented by age, gender, and race to determine if there are any differences between these audience segments.  This qualitative research will allow us to better understand the experiences and perceptions that shape YHRICC attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, particularly as related to TDV.  The three phases of research will build upon each other to provide significant insights into how to best communicate with this hard to reach YHRICC audience.

Conclusions:  From our multi-faceted research approach, profiles will be developed for each of the YHRICC 11 to 14-year-old and 15 to 18-year-old audiences.  The profiles will identify beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors towards family, peer and dating relationships, as well as media and technology use, school involvement, and interests.  If the data indicates significant differences across race or gender, sub-profiles within the two age groups will be developed. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  The profiles for the 11 to 14-year-olds will be used to inform messages and materials that influence attitudes and norms surrounding TDV.  The profiles for the 15 to 18-year-olds will provide insights regarding how to leverage the influence this older group has on their younger peers, particularly in relation to TDV message reinforcement.  Both profiles will provide insight into how to effectively drive messages to increase positive attitudes about healthy dating relationships.