ProblemHealth-risk behaviors contribute to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among youth and adults in the United States. In addition, significant health disparities exist among demographic subgroups of youth defined by sex, race/ethnicity, and grade in school and between sexual minority and nonsexual minority youth. Population-based data on the most important health-related behaviors at the national, state, and local levels can be used to help monitor the effectiveness of public health interventions designed to protect and promote the health of youth at the national, state, and local levels.Reporting Period CoveredSeptember 2016–December 2017.Description of the SystemThe Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors six categories of priority health-related behaviors among youth and young adults: 1) behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence; 2) tobacco use; 3) alcohol and other drug use; 4) sexual behaviors related to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection; 5) unhealthy dietary behaviors; and 6) physical inactivity. In addition, YRBSS monitors the prevalence of other health-related behaviors, obesity, and asthma. YRBSS includes a national school-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted by CDC and state and large urban school district school-based YRBSs conducted by state and local education and health agencies. Starting with the 2015 YRBSS cycle, a question to ascertain sexual identity and a question to ascertain sex of sexual contacts were added to the national YRBS questionnaire and to the standard YRBS questionnaire used by the states and large urban school districts as a starting point for their questionnaires. This report summarizes results from the 2017 national YRBS for 121 health-related behaviors and for obesity, overweight, and asthma by demographic subgroups defined by sex, race/ethnicity, and grade in school and by sexual minority status; updates the numbers of sexual minority students nationwide; and describes overall trends in health-related behaviors during 1991–2017. This reports also summarizes results from 39 state and 21 large urban school district surveys with weighted data for the 2017 YRBSS cycle by sex and sexual minority status (where available).ResultsResults from the 2017 national YRBS indicated that many high school students are engaged in health-risk behaviors associated with the leading causes of death among persons aged 10–24 years in the United States. During the 30 days before the survey, 39.2% of high school students nationwide (among the 62.8% who drove a car or other vehicle during the 30 days before the survey) had texted or e-mailed while driving, 29.8% reported current alcohol use, and 19.8% reported current marijuana use. In addition, 14.0% of students had taken prescription pain medicine without a doctor’s prescription or differently than how a doctor told them to use it one or more times during their life. During the 12 months before the ...
The purpose of this study was to examine the social and behavioral factors associated with pregnancy history among a sample of African American adolescent girls recruited from a short-term juvenile detention center in order to better understand the needs of this vulnerable population. Data were collected from a sample of 188 detained African American, 13-17-year-old girls in Atlanta, Georgia, who participated in a larger HIV prevention study. An audio computer-assisted self-interviewing survey was completed by participants to obtain information on socioecological factors to include individual, parental/familial, sexual risk, psychosocial, and substance use factors. Among the 188 participants, 25.5 % reported a history of pregnancy. A multivariable logistic regression model showed that girls with a history of pregnancy were more likely to live in a household receiving government aid, use hormonal contraceptives at last sex, participate in sex trading, have casual sex partners, have condomless sex in the past 90 days, and have a history of physical abuse. Girls with no history of pregnancy were more likely to have been incarcerated at least twice and to have previously used alcohol. Detention-based interventions and pregnancy prevention programs for this vulnerable population may benefit by addressing factors related to sexual behavior and development, substance use, individual background, and psychosocial health.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.