Background: Approximately 8.8% of US high school students attended private schools in 2015. Few studies have characterized health risk behaviors among these students or compared prevalence of behaviors between students in private and public schools using a contemporary, nationally representative sample. Methods: Pooled 2007-2017 national Youth…

Problem: Sexual identity and sex of sexual contacts can both be used to identify sexual minority youth. Significant health disparities exist between sexual minority and nonsexual minority youth. However, not enough is known about health-related behaviors that contribute to negative health outcomes among sexual minority youth and how the prevalence…

Problem: Priority health-risk behaviors contribute to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among youth and adults. Population-based data on these behaviors at the national, state, and local levels can help monitor the effectiveness of public health interventions designed to protect and promote the health of youth nationwide. Reporting…

In the United States, 70.8% of all deaths among youth and young adults aged 10-24 years result from only four causes: motor-vehicle crashes (32.3%), other unintentional injuries (11.7%), homicide (15.1%), and suicide (11.7%). Substantial morbidity and social problems also result from the approximately 870,000 pregnancies that occur each year among…

Summarizes results from the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System and trends from 1991 to 1997 in selected risk behaviors. Results indicate that many high school students still practice behaviors that place them at risk for serious health problems, with some behaviors more likely among particular subgroups. Some behaviors vary considerably…

Summarizes results from 1999 national school-based surveys and trends during 1991-99 in selected youth risk behaviors as well as 33 state and 16 local school-based surveys. Prevalence of several injury-related behaviors and sexual behaviors have improved. Current smoking rates may be declining. Certain risk behaviors are more common among…