This guide is designed to help schools administer a shortened youth risk behavior survey more frequently. This shortened survey focuses on mental health, substance use, perceptions, and assets. Many of the questions are identical to those from the full survey, which allows schools and health officials to draw comparisons between already existing longitudinal data. This shortened survey is also available through SurveyMonkey, a user-friendly digital format that allows students to complete the survey using school-provided computers or tablets. The shorter format is also designed to take no more than 15 minutes of class time, which makes it easier for schools to implement without sacrificing a full class period. Lastly, the digital format allows schools to immediately analyze and compare results. No long delays means that school officials can immediately address concerning trends in real-time, and evaluate the effectiveness of school interventions. This format is also easy to edit, allowing schools to add a question or two to evaluate local programs.
Jessica is the Executive Director for the Milton Community Youth Coalition in Milton, Vermont. She is passionate about prevention work and how we use and collect data to tell the story of why prevention is important in our communities. Jess has done a little bit of everything in prevention over the years, but is particularly proud of the work she did with middle and high school youth advising youth prevention groups across three different schools. She has six years of experience in prevention, with a prior five in library and information sciences. She has a BA in English and a Certificate of Women in Leadership from Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire and a Master of Library and Information Science from North Carolina Central University.
As part of this fellowship, Jess is working on a survey tool to make youth behavior data collection easier and faster for communities. The goal is to draft a digital survey that tracks substance use and mental health trends that takes 10 minutes or less of class time to administer that could be given quarterly. Through a tool like SurveyMonkey, these survey results are immediate and give us a snapshot of shifting behavior trends in real time, allowing us as prevention professionals to respond in real time, rather than waiting for biannual YRBS results.
If you have a survey monkey account and would like to have this survey transferred to your account, please send your username in an email to [email protected]
