Lessons Learned From Adolescent Mothers: Advice on Recruitment

Purpose: Adolescent mothers have high rates of depressive symptoms and inadequate rates of depression evaluation and treatment. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify characteristics of effective recruitment ads for an Internet-based depression intervention for pregnant and parenting adolescents. Methods: Using focus group methods, participants (N = 35) were recruited and enrolled at a teen parent program, part of the public school system. Focus group sessions were analyzed for participant preferences, rationale for choices, key words, and the frequency of words within the videotapes and audiotapes. Results: Findings indicated that adolescent mothers preferred pictures in which everyone looked happy, narrative that clearly indicated cost and eligibility, and words that they would use in conversation. Clinical Relevance: The study filled an important gap in the literature by soliciting from pregnant and parenting adolescents their preferences regarding visual appeal, content adequacy, and message clarity of advertisements that would motivate them to visit an Internet intervention for depression. Results could be extrapolated to education of pregnant and parenting adolescents in clinical settings.