Stigma surrounding certain health issues remains deeply entrenched, often silencing those affected and discouraging them from participating in research, particularly on sensitive topics such as sexual and reproductive health. These barriers are especially pronounced in traditional, face-to-face research settings. The Asynchronous Remote Communities (ARC) method offers a promising alternative by enabling remote participation in structured, supportive research activities. Although the ARC method has been successfully used with people facing stigma, existing guidelines offer limited direction for deepening participant engagement, fostering meaningful interactions, and supporting reflection on sensitive topics. In this paper, we present how we adapted ARC to support 26 unmarried Korean women facing stigma from cultural norms that marginalize sexual and reproductive health discussions and care-seeking. Our adaptations included improving rapport-building, including destigmatizing activities, reconsidering sequential activities and anticipating the emotional impact of activities to support constructive discomfort, and broadening criteria for evaluating activities. Over 9 weeks, these approaches deepened reflection and led to substantial changes in perception and behavior with 100% participation. We showed that our adaptations to ARC can drive personal and communal growth, highlighting its potential for lasting, meaningful engagement in research for people dealing with stigmatized health concerns.
Ryu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.