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2013 Knox County Schools Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey

The Knox County Health Department and the Knox County Schools recently released the Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This survey, conducted in 2008, 2010 and now 2013, asks Knox County Schools (KCS) middle school students questions about a lot of different things to get a sense of what our youth are doing, both in and out of school.

There is a lot of information contained in this report, covering several different topics.

Here are some of the highlights, takeaways and trends from this report:

• Almost one half (48.3 percent) of KCS middle school students said they’d been bullied on school property. More than half of middle school girls surveyed (52.3 percent) say they’d been bullied.
• More than half (55.7 percent) of KCS middle school students said they thought harassment and bullying is a problem at their school.
• Six percent of KCS middle schoolers say they smoked cigarettes on one or more days in the past 30 days.
• Just over 10 percent (10.4) report using some form of tobacco product (cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, snuff, dip, chewing tobacco or little cigars) in the past 30 days. Eighth graders used tobacco the most (16 percent).
• One out of five (20.5 percent) KCS middle school students reported they had ever tried alcohol outside of taking a few sips or for religious purposes.
• Ten percent of KCS middle schoolers say they had ever used marijuana.
• Nearly half (45.3 percent) of KCS middle school students reported they are trying to lose weight. Girls were much more likely to say this than boys (56.8 percent for girls vs. 32 percent for boys).
• About three quarters (74.1 percent) of KCS middle school students say they had been taught about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in school.

To check read the entire report, click on the image in this post.