The theme of barriers or deterrents to participation is often discussed among adult basic education practitioners, but until recently, there have been few actual studies on this topic for the specific ABE population. Cross (1981) described barriers as being situational, dispositional and institutional. Scanlan and Darkenwald (1984) in their empirical study of deterrents to participation in health-related continuing professional education discovered Cross's classification to be over-simplified. Their results yielded six factors. Because they had dealt with a specialized population, their findings were not intended to be widely generalizable. A later study by Darkenwald and Valentine (1985) sought to build on this earlier work and to measure deterrents among the general adult population. Their analysis yielded six factors which they labelled as Lack of Confidence, Lack of Course Relevance, Time Constraints, Low Personal Priority, Cost, and Personal Problems. Only one of these factors - cost - was identical to those deterrents identified in the previous study with a specialized population. This research shows the multidimensions inherent in the deterrent constructs. The authors suggest that because of the different findings of the two studies, modified or specially developed Deterrents to Participation Scale (DPS) instruments are needed to measure deterrents for distinctive sub-populations.

In Canada, two research studies which have described barriers or deterrents to participation in adult education are the CAAE-ICEA study (1982) From the Adult's Point of View and The Barriers Project (1989). The former lists 15 types of barriers which recurred in discussions with groups of people known to experience difficulties when they seek to participate in learning opportunities offered through public institutions. The Barriers Project which focussed on the removal of barriers to part-time students, lists nine types of barriers identified by community colleges participating in the study.