Summary: The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

For years, Americans have been told that exercising and staying active is imperative to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In general, this fact holds true for all generations and age groups, including the youth of today. Children simply need to exercise and participate in more physical activities in order to maintain a high level of health. The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools suggests that, “one of the leading causes of this epidemic (childhood obesity) is a marked decline in physical activity and athletic participation” (“Athletics in Schools”). Childhood fascinations with watching television, playing video games, and browsing the internet are just a few of the sedentary hobbies taking over children’s free time to be active. Therefore, mandating physical activities in schools across the country will effectively reduce the frequency of this major, obesity health crisis in young students. Understandably, a plethora of factors cause and influence children to become overweight and obese, but working to fix each evident problem will, in the end, contribute to finally ending the developing childhood health crisis.

First of all, students do not have much knowledge about the different fitness components; they do not understand the relation between the fitness components and health. If students acquire the background knowledge about fitness, it could improve the class engagement and motivation, and increase the independent drive to exercise. Second barrier to students’ achievement is the lack of motivation to be active, and even more difficult, to specific fitness activities, such as sit-ups and push-ups. In today’s society, students spend more time sitting in front a screen and less time moving. Parent and school today have more responsibility making sure the children get enough physical activity. According to the New York Times (2016), “early school physical education (PE) programs can make a significant difference, and the earlier these routines are learned the more likely they will be carried forth into a healthy adulthood”. Another barrier that prevents students’ success is the loss of instructional time due to discipline problems. The classes are too big, with many diverse students with individual problems, which are difficult to address when these issues are from very different backgrounds. Finally, there is not enough support from home affecting not only physical education, but

Healthy People implemented an extensive list of physical activity objectives targeting youth of all ages. The objectives are all aimed at promoting the health benefits of maintaining a physically active life-style. The following objective targets a major area of concern for the medical community and the increase of inactivity among today's youth; “PA-8.2.2; Increase the proportion of children and adolescents aged 6 to 14 years who view television, videos, or play video games for no more than 2 hours a

Did you know substance-abuse among young people is a bigger problem than many parents realize. HOW big? 1in10 kids 12 to 17 years old are current users of drugs, According to the recent government survey.

It is common to see teenagers smoking marijuana or drinking in this day and time. Majority of adults that drink and smoke started when they were in junior high. Growing up in Sweeny, quite a few of my classmates started drinking, dipping (chewing tobacco), and smoking in the 7th or 8th grade. It only got worse as they got to high school because it became easier to get ahold of it at parties. These acts have been encouraged or turned a blind eye to because some parents do not see the harm in it. Out of the three, underage drinking took a toll on your county the most. Every year there has been two or three teenagers who have lost their lives due to drinking and driving. Alcohol impaired driving deaths has risen to 36% according to County Health

Think of it, kids only go to Physical Education or “gym” class every other day of the week. So that is about two or three times a week. Gym class only lasts about an hour of the day, and for some students, this is the only physical exercise that they have. When kids come home from school, they usually just sit down on the couch and watch TV until dinner time, study, and then play video games late at night, and then go to bed. The way we can get kids to develop a habit of more physical exercise is having gym class every day instead of just two to three. Also, instead of kids playing games that involve little to no activity, Schools should have kids focus on things like getting your body moving like running, yoga or sports games like baseball, football or volleyball. Things like this that kids can look forward to doing everyday may potentially lead to a child more encouraged to play with a ball afterschool and find a new hobby instead of sitting at home on the

The health assessment in which I focused on is underage drinking. It is a huge problem in the United States amongst the youths. According to the L.A. Health report “Alcohol is the most frequently used drug by teenagers in the United States, and underage alcohol use is a significant national concern.” (Underage Drinking, 2004). “Of underage adult drinkers, 76%obtained alcohol from a home or a private residence, 64% from someone ages 21 years or older, 24% from a restaurant/bar, and 18% from a store.” (Underage Drinking, 2004). I can assume that underage drinking is due to the lack of responsibility of the youth

At risk youth is a growing problem we are starting to face at a rapid pace. However it is not the youth that is the problem, it is what’s causing the youth to become at risk is the real villain behind the mask. As we all just saw in the film Girlhood directed by Liz Garbus, Megan and Shanae are very good examples of how this villain comes to power. In the article “Reclaiming Family Privilege” John Seita gives his personal knowledge on how at risk youth get there dangerous start. With the article “Youth at Risk” Gene Stephens give programs that can prevent and defeat this villain once and for all. The problem with the youth at risk is that they do not receive the support or help they need until it becomes too late and because of this they are

The study by Viljoen et al. (2012) has been alluded to in reference to their findings on the J-SOAP-II, the ERASOR 2.0, and the JSORRAT. This study consisted of a meta-analysis on 33 different studies, which examined not only the three aforementioned tools, but also the previously discussed adult risk tool, the STATIC-99 (Viljoen et al., 2012). In its scope of studies, the meta-analysis captured over 6000 adolescent male offenders, primarily Caucasian; with an average age was 16; and a follow-up period for recidivism data ranging from 12-120 months (Viljoen et al., 2012). This is a large study, which included several tools and looked specifically at juvenile risk assessment tools.

Over the last 30-40 years, the amount and intensity of exercise has gradually declined. Few children in the United States have actually met the recommended “sixty minutes of vigorous exercise” per day (Institute of Medicine, 2013). Although most states and districts have policies pertaining to physical education, these programs lack reinforcement and are often considered weak. Physical education has slowly declined throughout the years, and the the purpose of encouraging students to make physical activity part of their daily lifestyle has been lost. Recent research from Cornell University has found that the average high school gym class consists of students being active for an average of only sixteen minutes! This is nowhere near the recommended sixty minutes of physical exercise. Physical education has been pushed to the side while academics have been prioritised. P.E. classes have become overlooked by society as a whole. Students simply see it as a courses used only for socializing, or to avoid academic courses such as Algebra, Biology, and History. While teachers no longer encourage students to be active, this should not be the path in which we take physical education. The importance of exercise and physical activity goes beyond the classroom with is proven benefits in memory, cognition and attention which are skills that can be used for daily life activities. In recent times, many programs are popping up across the country to emphasize the importance of being active!

Alcohol remains the most commonly used substance among youth in the United States with use rates far exceeding that of other substances. Nationally, almost half of all tenth graders and thirty percent of eighth graders drink alcohol (Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 2015). Teen alcohol use results in the death of 4,700 youth per year (Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 2015). In Texas, 67% of high school students have used alcohol at least once in their lifetime and 36% drank alcohol in the past month (Texans Standing Tall, 2013). Parents commonly ignore or underestimate the problem of underage drinking. While one is six teens binge drink, only 1 in 100 parents believes his or her teen binge drinks (Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 2015).

Studies have shown that teens from split homes suffer from depression which can lead to substance abuse. In a survey taken amongst high school students almost 40% will admit to have drinking alcohol with in the last month. 40% of students have also admitted to the use of marijuana 7% of these students admit to have used marijuana every day. Few as 5% of students have admitted to the use of prescription medication or over the counter medication for recreational purposes. Over the counter

Among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, 9.8 % are estimated to be current users of illicit drugs, with 4.9 % using drugs other than marijuana. Nearly three quarters of students have started to drink alcohol and nearly half (47%) have tried using an illicit drug (not including alcohol or tobacco) by the senior year of high school.” (Hassan, Harris, Sherritt, Van Hook, & Brooks, 2009)

The scientific journal article, Longitudinal Effects of School Drug Policies on Student Marijuana Use in Washington State and Victoria, Australia states that Marijuana is the most used taboo drug worldwide and an estimated 181 million of the world’s adults used marijuana in 2011. School-based prevention programs/policies have become the most prominent mode of drug prevention for adolescents. The main object of the study in this scientific journal article is adolescent students marijuana use. There are multiple goals of this study. The first goal of the study is to determine if student marijuana use can be predicted by the amount in which the school enforces their drug policies. The second, is to determine if student marijuana use can be predicted by the different ways in which schools respond to drug use in school The last goal, is to determine if student marijuana use can be predicted based upon the level that a school’s drug policy is based on refraining from using marijuana and the minimization of harm. The hypotheses of this study are affirming the goals. The first is that student marijuana use can in fact be predicted by the amount that the school enforces their drug policies. The second is that student marijuana use can in fact be predicted by the different ways in which schools respond to the drug use in their school. The last hypothesis is that, student marijuana use can in fact be predicted by the level that a school’s drug policy is based on refraining from using

Teenage alcohol abuse is one of the major problems that affect academic performance, cause health problems and is responsible for the death of teenage drivers and sometime their passengers. Many teens drink because they think it is cool and do not understand the dangers of drinking alcohol. In 2008 a survey on the students views on alcohol was conducted in the Atlanta Public School System of 4,241 students surveyed results showed 74% of sixth graders felt there was a health risk while 25% felt there was no health risk; 81% of eighth graders felt there was a health risk, while 19% felt there was none; 82% of tenth graders felt there was a health risk, while 18% felt there was none, and 84% of twelve graders felt there was a health risk,