lens
The Private Lives of Youth
Annual questionnaire provides revealing details Βι¶ΉΣ³» behaviors—both healthy and troubling
Last fall, nearly 13,000 seventh- and eighth-graders throughout Cuyahoga County took an anonymous 85-question survey to help researchers answer the following: What's really going on with our children?
The Cuyahoga County Youth Risk Behavior Survey is a biannual assessment led by Case Western Reserve researchers at the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods. It is patterned after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention questionnaire.
Project director Jean Frank believes the results offer an accurate peek into the private lives of today's middle schoolers on topics ranging from depression to parent involvement. And, she said, the insights gained can help inform anything from what schools discuss with parents and students to local laws detailing age restrictions for vaping (the risk behavior that saw the biggest change, jumping to 10.1% in 2018 from 5.4% in 2016). The survey also documents the magnitude of problems. For example: 16.2% of the participants had gone hungry for lack of food at home during the prior 30 days.
As principal at Bay Middle School in Cleveland's western suburbs, Sean McAndrews found it helpful to share the survey data with middle-school students— whether to dispute any arguments that "everybody" is vaping or drinking, or to show students with feelings of deep sadness that they aren't alone.
The data "empowers kids to take action," said McAndrews, who recently moved to a high school in Naples, Florida. "Maybe a student who is depressed will get a friend who is also depressed, and together they will go talk to someone and get help."
How it Works
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey was offered last year to all 103 public schools in Cuyahoga County that have seventh or eighth graders; 94 participated. Student participation is voluntary. The survey is conducted in even-numbered years in middle schools and odd-numbered years in high schools. The principal investigator is Erika Trapl, PhD (CWR '00; GRS '04, '07, epidemiology and biostatistics), an associate professor of population and quantitative health sciences and the associate director of the university's Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods. The results and data briefs are at .
Key Findings from the Cuyahoga County Youth Risk Behavior Survey include the following:
Troubling Trends
Fighting
In a physical fight at least once during the last 12 months: 33.2% in 2014 compared with 38.6% in 2018
Self-Harm
Intentionally injured self: 15.2% in 2014 compared with 20.1% in 2018
Obesity
(researchers calculated based on reported height and weight). 11.8% in 2014 compared with 13.5% in 2018
Sadness
Experienced depressive symptoms: 21.3% in 2014 compared with 28.3% in 2018
Hopeful Trends
Communication*
Talk with parents (who initiate the conversation) Βι¶ΉΣ³» school almost every day: 54.4% in 2014 compared with 58.9% in 2018
Community*
Feel they matter to people in their community: 44.3% in 2014 compared with 49.5% in 2018
Help and Support*
Have an adult whom they would seek out for help: 82% in 2014 compared with 83.2% in 2018
Bullying
Have been electronically harassed: 21.3% in 2014 compared with 16.5% in 2018
*Key protective factors that survey researchers said help encourage healthy behaviors and reduce risky behaviors, depressive symptoms and thoughts of suicide.
All survey results reflect findings by male and female respondents