Health‐Risk Behaviors Among Middle School Students In A Large Majority‐Minority School District

Abstract

Since 1991, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has administered the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) biennially to representative samples of high school students. YRBS results indicate that health-risk behaviors often developed during middle school years. To date, few state and local education agencies have administered the YRBS-Middle School. This study measured prevalence of health-risk behaviors among middle school students in a large, majority-minority school district (n = 1,783). Results indicated that young adolescents (ages 11-14) are engaging in multiple health-risk behaviors. For example, 24.4% seriously considered committing suicide in the previous year, 53.3% had been in a physical fight, 50.2% ever drank alcohol, 17.9% ever used marijuana, and 13.4% had already had sex. Such behaviors potentially could lead to serious consequences related to their educational achievement and overall health status. Health-related policy and program applications are discussed.

Assessment of health risk behaviours and their interrelationships among young people from two counties of Romania

“…Similar to other research results, many health risk behaviours were found to be interrelated rather than being a collection of independent activities (Brenner and Collins 1998; Potthoff et al 1998; Fetro et al 2001; Anteghini et al 2001; Shrier et al 1997). Almost one third of the junior high school students and around 60% of the senior high school as well as university students were involved in more than one risk behaviour.…”

Preadolescent Health Risk Behavior as a Function of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure and Gender

“…A study of ethnically diverse urban middle school students, for example, found 31% of those who smoked a cigarette had done so by age 9 years, and 47% had their first drink of alcohol by age 9 years. 6 During the 1990s, the major causes of mortality and morbidity for youth shifted from infectious to behavioral causes related to such risky activities. 7 Several models suggest that the increase in these behaviors during early adolescence is a result of both personal characteristics and environmental conditions.…”

Children at Risk: The Association Between Perceived Weight Status and Suicidal Thoughts and Attempts in Middle School Youth*

“…While the high school version of the YRBS has been used to describe suicide among high school age youth (eg, Grunbaum et al 13 and Eaton et al 12 ), less is known about suicidal behaviors in middle school students. Studies using the middle school YRBS have indicated that many risky behaviors are adopted during these early teenage years, 22‐24 so the availability of such information may allow for interventions to minimize the adoption of high‐risk behaviors. We hypothesized that perception of overweight would be significantly associated with suicidal thoughts and actions when controlling for important personal and family characteristics.…”