Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance —United States, 2013
YRBSS is the largest public health surveillance system in the
United States monitoring a broad range of health-risk behaviors
among high school students. YRBSS data are used widely
to compare the prevalence of health-risk behaviors among
subpopulations of students; assess trends in health-risk behaviors
over time; monitor progress toward achieving national health
objectives; provide comparable state and large urban school
district data; and help develop, assess, and improve school and
community policies, programs, and practices designed to decrease
health-risk behaviors and improve health outcomes among youth.
Because of its broad scope, YRBSS also allows analysis of the
inter-relationships among health-risk behaviors (e.g., how alcohol
and other drug use is associated with behaviors that contribute
to violence) and a more complete understanding of how health-
risk behaviors cluster among various subpopulations of students
(e.g., whether tobacco use or sexual behaviors are more likely
to occur among males than females or in certain regions of the
country). Although these analyses are beyond the scope of this
report, they are a particular strength of YRBSS as compared with
more narrowly focused surveys
In the United States, 70% of all deaths among youth and
young adults aged 10–24 years result from four causes: motor
vehicle crashes (23%), other unintentional injuries (18%),
homicide (15%), and suicide (15%) (
Nationwide, 7.3% of students had ever been physically
forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want
to (Table 19). The prevalence of having been forced to have
sexual intercourse was higher among female (10.5%) than
male (4.2%) students; higher among white female (9.1%),
black female (11.5%), and Hispanic female (12.2%) than
white male (3.1%), black male (5.2%), and Hispanic male
(5.2%) students, respectively; and higher among 9th-grade
female (8.3%), 10th-grade female (11.8%), 11th-grade female
(10.5%), and 12th-grade female (11.2%) than 9th-grade male
(3.8%), 10th-grade male (2.8%), 11th-grade male (4.7%),
and 12th-grade male (5.5%) students, respectively. The
prevalence of having been forced to have sexual intercourse
was higher among black (8.4%) and Hispanic (8.7%) than
white (6.1%) students and higher among black male (5.2%)
and Hispanic male (5.2%) than white male (3.1%) students.
The prevalence of having been forced to have sexual intercourse
was higher among 10th-grade (7.2%), 11th-grade (7.7%), and
12th-grade (8.4%) than 9th-grade (6.1%) students; higher
among 10th-grade female (11.8%) and 12th-grade female
(11.2%) than 9th grade female (8.3%) students; and higher
among 11th-grade male (4.7%) and 12th-grade male (5.5%)
than 10th-grade male (2.8%) students
For more information: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6304.pdf
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