@article{Koschmieder_Wyss_Pfister_2021, title={"It’s Like Looking for a Needle in a Haystack." Methodological Reflections on Recruiting Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Families Into Qualitative Studies}, volume={22}, url={https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/3609}, DOI={10.17169/fqs-22.2.3609}, abstractNote={<p>Recruiting hard-to-reach groups in qualitative studies is challenging and yet rarely becomes the subject of methodological reflections. In this article, we describe the recruitment strategies of a research project and reflect on them in terms of reaching socioeconomically disadvantaged families by highlighting the barriers and success factors of the strategies. It can be shown that the choice of the recruitment strategy can influence the sample composition, highlighting the need for regular reflection loops and the use of diverse strategies. It is also important when accessing socioeconomically disadvantaged groups to consider the context as well as the structural conditions of the target group. When recruiting families, the development of a child-friendly approach is relevant. It is central to inform the child about the interview setting and to obtain his or her explicit consent. Furthermore, it can be shown that access to hard-to-reach groups requires significant investments in time and in some cases financial resources, and that increased flexibility is necessary on the part of the researchers.</p>}, number={2}, journal={Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research}, author={Koschmieder, Nikola and Wyss, Sabrina and Pfister, Andreas}, year={2021}, month={May} }