ESRA 2027 sessions by theme

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Session Details

Young people are among the hardest-to-reach groups in survey research. Declining response rates among youth threaten the representativeness of survey estimates and risk excluding a demographic whose attitudes, behaviours, and experiences are essential to understanding social change. Traditional probability-based recruitment methods, while methodologically robust, often struggle to engage younger populations who increasingly live their social and communicative lives on digital platforms far removed from conventional survey channels.
This session invites contributions that explore innovative approaches to recruiting and engaging youth in survey research, with a particular focus on social media, respondent-driven, and other non-probability methods. We welcome papers addressing questions such as:
• How can social media platforms and advertising be used as recruitment channels for young respondents?
• What role can respondent-driven or snowball sampling play in reaching youth through peer networks?
• How can hybrid designs combine probability-based frames with digitally native recruitment strategies?
• What lessons can be drawn from experiments or case studies comparing traditional and innovative recruitment methods among youth?
• What practical challenges arise in implementing these methods, and how have researchers addressed them?
We encourage submissions presenting empirical findings, methodological experiments, or case studies, from both academic and applied/official statistics perspectives. By bringing together researchers exploring youth non-response from different angles, this session aims to foster a shared understanding of what works, what doesn't, and where the field should go next in ensuring young people remain represented in the surveys that shape policy and research.