2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Results
Sunday, March 25th, 2018 -- 8:45 AM
Results from the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey provide both promising and troubling news about the status of high school students in Wisconsin.On one hand, the vast majority of students are passing their classes, feel they belong at their school, and have a supportive teacher or other adult that they can go to with problems. Rates of sexual activity; smoking; alcohol use, including binge drinking; and marijuana use are all in decline. However, students also sleep less, are on their devices more, and are more likely to feel sad or hopeless, and to consider and plan suicide. Nearly 50 percent of girls and 30 percent of boys report anxiety. While students generally feel safer at school than in the past, there’s a small but growing group that rarely feels safe at school. First-time questions show 11.6 percent of students are using e-cigarettes or other vapor products, whose long-term health effects are not know. And, 11.2 percent reported unauthorized use of prescription pain medicine, confirming that opioid abuse touches Wisconsin high schools.
The biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey is anonymous and voluntary with 2,067 Wisconsin students in ninth through 12th grade taking the 2017 survey. Results are representative of all public high school students in the state. The 2015 survey lacked sufficient participation to produce results so the 2017 survey provides long-awaited information on the health and behavior of Wisconsin youth.
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