{"doi":"10.2196/16370","title":"Feasibility of Social Media–Based Recruitment and Perceived Acceptability of Digital Health Interventions for Caregivers of Justice-Involved Youth: Mixed Methods Study","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Caregiver involvement is critical for supporting positive behavioral health and legal outcomes for justice-involved youth; however, recruiting this population into clinical research studies and engaging them in treatment remain challenging. Technology-based approaches are a promising, yet understudied avenue for recruiting and intervening with caregivers of justice-involved youth. OBJECTIVE: This mixed methods study aimed to assess the feasibility of recruiting caregivers of justice-involved youth using social media into clinical research and to understand caregivers' perceptions of the acceptability of digital health interventions. METHODS: Caregivers of justice-involved youth were recruited through paid Facebook advertisements to participate in a Web-based survey. Advertisement design was determined using Facebook A/B split testing, and the advertisement with the lowest cost per link click was used for the primary advertisement campaign. Survey participants were offered the option to participate in a follow-up qualitative phone interview focused on the perceived feasibility and acceptability of digital health interventions. RESULTS: Facebook advertisements were successful in quickly recruiting a diverse set of caregivers (80/153, 52.3% female; mean age 43 years, SD 7; 76/168, 45.2% black, 34/168, 20.2% white, and 28/168, 16.7% Latinx; and 97/156, 62.2% biological parents); cost per click was US $0.53, and conversion rate was 11.5%. Survey participants used multiple social media platforms; 60.1% (101/168) of the participants indicated they would participate in a digital health intervention for caregivers of justice-involved youth. Survey respondents' most preferred intervention was supportive and motivational parenting messages via SMS text message. Of the survey respondents, 18 completed a phone interview (12/18, 67% female; mean age 45 years, SD 10; 10/18, 56% black, 7/18, 39% white, and 1/18, 6% Latinx; and 16/18, 89% biological parents). Interview participant responses suggested digital health interventions are acceptable, but they expressed both likes (eg, alleviates barriers to treatment access) and concerns (eg, privacy); their most preferred intervention was video-based family therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Recruiting and intervening with caregivers of justice-involved youth through social media and other digital health approaches may be a feasible and acceptable approach to overcoming barriers to accessing traditional in-person behavioral health care.","journal":"Journal of Medical Internet Research","year":2020,"id":76348,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":21,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9502,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":398009,"name":"Anna J. Harrison","orcid":"0000-0002-6226-914X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398010,"name":"Christopher Rodriguez","orcid":"0000-0002-9358-592X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398011,"name":"Amanda Wallace","orcid":"0000-0002-2840-7393","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398012,"name":"Marina Tolou‐Shams","orcid":"0000-0003-2551-609X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398008,"name":"Johanna B. Folk","orcid":"0000-0003-0503-7307","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":37,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:47:46.469293Z","pmid":"32352388","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}