20.500.12556/RUL-144811 Recruitment of adolescent young carers to a psychosocial support intervention study in six European countries lessons learned from the ME-WE Project Young carers provide a substantial amount of care to family members and support to friends, yet their situation has not been actively addressed in research and policy in many European countries or indeed globally. Awareness of their situation by professionals and among children and young carers themselves remains low overall. Thus, young carers remain a largely hidden group within society. This study reports and analyses the recruitment process in a multi-centre intervention study offering psychosocial support to adolescent young carers (AYCs) aged 15–17 years. A cluster- randomised controlled trial was designed, with recruitment taking place in Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom exploiting various channels, including partnerships with schools, health and social services and carers organisations. In total, 478 AYCs were recruited and, after screening failures, withdrawals and initial dropouts, 217 were enrolled and started the intervention. Challenges encountered in reaching, recruiting and retaining AYCs included low levels of awareness among AYCs, a low willingness to participate in study activities, uncertainty about the prevalence of AYCs, a limited school capacity to support the recruitment; COVID-19 spreading in 2020–2021 and related restrictions. Based on this experience, recommendations are put forward for how to better engage AYCs in research. young carers adolescent young carers recruitment co-design psychosocial support cluster-randomised controlled trial intervention study najstniki dolgotrajna oskrba socialna psihologija COVID-19 Evropa true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Evropa; Članek v reviji 2023-03-14 12:53:47 2023-03-14 12:53:55 2023-03-15 03:30:56 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2023 0 0 Str. 1-20 issue 6, [article no.] 5074 Vol. 20 Mar. 2023 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 364-47-053.6 1660-4601 10.3390/ijerph20065074 145119235 Hlebec_et.al_IJERPH_3.pdf Hlebec_et.al_IJERPH_3.pdf 1 03E4890CA849CE56449744FB466D516A 68af14ce3427c3f6c883f70f6e4e88ae013501cd41815a009afb969b5c6824c9 492bf907-c25f-11ed-a314-00155dcfd717 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=167344 https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/5074 0 521abd23-c25f-11ed-a314-00155dcfd717 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=167345 Fakulteta za družbene vede 0 0 0