• By Ayo Ademoyero
• Posted Wednesday, August 29, 2012

2011 WSFCS Youth Risk Behavior Survey Results

The Forsyth County Department of Public Health in partnership with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System is pleased to announce the release of the result of the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) available here: http://www.forsyth.cc/PublicHealth/publications.

The YRBS was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to monitor behaviors which contribute to death and other health and social problems that affect youth and young adults. This is the second time the survey has been administered locally occurring every 2 years since 2009.

The 2011 YRBS was administered and voluntarily completed by 15 public middle schools to 2,184 middle school students and 13 public high schools to 1,523 high school students. The survey contained questions about: personal safety, violence, mental health and disability, use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, nutrition and physical activity, and sexual behavior for high school students only.

These results can be used to better understand the behaviors among our youth causing the most important health problems, assess whether health risk behaviors increase or decrease over time, evaluate the impact of existing school and community interventions and support new legislation and policies that promote health, and seek funding and other support for new initiatives.

A few results from the middle school survey include:

• 28% of middle school student have had alcohol
• 13% had used marijuana
• 13% had made a suicide plan
• 15% had seriously considered attempting suicide
• 26% described themselves as slightly or very overweight

A few results from the high school survey include the following:

• 19% engaged in binge drinking
• 26% used marijuana in the past 30 days
• 30% reported texting/emailing while driving a car or other vehicle
• 59% of sexually active students used protection during their last intercourse
• 12% of students attempted suicide at least once in the past year
• 27% described themselves as slightly or very overweight

For the complete middle and high school report click here