{Survey}
The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) was designed in 1990 to determine the prevalence of health risk behaviors such as tobacco use, unhealthy dietary behaviors, inadequate physical activity, alcohol and drug use, sexual behaviors contributing to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and behaviors contributing to unintended injuries and violence.
{Purpose}
The YRBSS is intended to assess whether health risk behaviors increase, decrease, or stay the same over time, as well as examining the co-occurrence of health risk behaviors. The YRBSS provides comparable national and state data among subpopulations of youth.
{Methods}
The YRBSS includes national and state school-based surveys of representative samples of 9th through 12th grade students. These surveys are conducted every two years, usually during the spring semester. The national survey, conducted by the CDC, provides data representative of high school students in public and private schools in the United States. The state and surveys, conducted by departments of health and education, provide data representative of the state. The YRBSS data are provided for 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019, and 2021 (however, the 2005 survey was not administered in Mississippi due to Katrina).
{Reports + Fact Sheets}
– State Rankings of Current Cigarette Smoking, April 2024 (PDF)
This report provides state rankings of current smoking among adults (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System) and public high school students (Youth Risk Surveillance System).
– The Mississippi Youth Risk Behavior Survey: Tobacco Use, 1993-2007 (PDF)
Results from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey demonstrate that the prevalence of current and frequent cigarette smoking among public high school students increased during the 1990ʼs and then decreased substantially after 1999. This trend occurred in Mississippi and the Nation as a whole. The percentage of Mississippi and U.S. high school students who smoked cigarettes on school property also decreased after the late 1990ʼs.