Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) is a project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Developed in 1990, the YRBSS consists of local, state, and national schoolbased surveys of youth to monitor the prevalence of and trends in health risk behaviors. Specific behaviors of interest include substance abuse, risky sexual practices, and unhealthy physical and dietary behaviors. These risk behaviors, often developed during childhood and adolescence, contribute to the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among youth and adults in the United States. The goals of YRBSS include documenting the prevalence and co-occurrence of health risk behaviors; monitoring trends in the prevalence of these behaviors; generating comparable national, state, and local data, as well as data on youth subpopulations; and tracking ...