Session: INVITED SYMPOSIA: "Improving Research with Hard-to-Reach Populations in a Global Setting" (Society for Social Work and Research 14th Annual Conference: Social Work Research: A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES)

Field research is a challenging endeavor under the best of circumstances. When one overlays such themes as cultural differences, asking difficult and perhaps invasive questions about sensitive and/or traumatic life events, ethical issues, and working in other countries perhaps with respondents who are difficult to locate or access, carrying out such research becomes even more challenging. This symposium examines the realities of conducting research with hard-to-reach populations under these conditions. As can be seen from the three papers presented in this symposium, both flexibility and creativity are required to effectively carry out such research. The goal of the symposium is to encourage dialogue on how we might improve our research methodologies to produce more valid and reliable data when working in a global setting.