The Sunshine State goes dark on adolescent health. It’s a dangerous misstep in Florida
The Sunshine State is forcing adolescent health into the shadows — and the consequences could be far-reaching.
The Florida Department of Education recently — and quietly — ended its decades-long participation in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a nationwide survey of high school students sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Abruptly ending Florida’s survey participation after 30 years means that critically important data needed to support adolescents’ health in Florida and nationwide will no longer be available.
The need for such data is currently more vital than ever — and the timing of this withdrawal raises serious additional concerns. Adolescents across Florida are still dealing with COVID-related hardships that directly affect their mental and physical well-being. In addition, Florida is proposing and passing bills like the socalled ‘Don’t say gay’ bill, as well as legislation to weaken firearms safety laws.
Decades of research tell us that these bills can directly harm adolescent health, though the proponents of these bills claim — erroneously and without scientifically-based evidence — that they are necessary for adolescents’ well-being. And yet, rather than politicians proving their point by letting the YRBS continue to track relevant data, they are shutting it down: Better to not have your narrative challenged by evidence.
A CRITICAL SOURCE
About 85,000 high school students in 44 states, including almost 6,000 from Florida, participated in the most recent survey conducted in 2019. That survey, like others before it, provided a wealth of critical information regarding adolescents’ health needs and behaviors, like mental health, substance use, sexual activity and experiences with violence and bullying. And, like other state surveys conducted over the past several decades, the YRBS is essential for tracking the health and well-being of adolescents.
In turn, these data offer important insights and trends that inform schooland state-wide programs, policies and funding. States’ commitment to the YRBS reflect a shared concern for adolescent health and a shared understanding of the need for data to support evidence-informed approaches regardless of political agendas.
Florida’s withdrawal from the YRBS will eliminate the data needed to promote adolescents’ physical and mental health in the state. Withdrawing the third most populous state from the survey will also lessen our understanding of national trends.
The YRBS is a critical data source relevant to all youth, even though public attention often focuses on data trends, legislation and programs that target marginalized populations (LGBTQ and racial and ethnic minority youth) or politically contentious issues (firearms and gender identity).
And, while focusing on marginalized populations and contentious issues is imperative, without the YRBS, the Florida Departsment
of Health and other state agencies lose a key tool for tracking other important youth behaviors such as nutrition, contraception, mental health, smoking and marijuana use and school safety.
For example, the YRBS documents how school safety issues are particularly problematic in Florida: 15% of all students report that they skipped school because they feel unsafe, which is 66% higher than the national average of 9%.
Florida schools have been particularly unsafe for many students, including LGBT adolescents, long before the passage of the “Don’t say gay” bill. Because of the YRBS, we know that about 15% of Florida’s high school students identified as LGBT in 2019. Compared to their heterosexual and cis-gender peers, LGBT students reported much higher rates of bullying, being threatened with a weapon, and skipping school due to feeling unsafe; they were also at least twice as likely to report feeling sad/hopeless or to have seriously considered suicide.
The passage of the “Don’t say gay” bill and loosened gun restrictions may affect young people’s safety and mental health, including in their homes, schools, and communities. But without the survey, we won’t be able to track any of these trends.
We join others in calling for Florida to continue administering the YRBS and urge other states to avoid this dangerous misstep. Ignoring adolescents’ behaviors doesn’t mean they don’t happen; it just means we will lack information that is imperative to support their healthy development.
The YRBS shines a needed light on adolescents’ experiences and motivates policies and programs that meet their needs, which cannot happen if politically motivated decisions keep them in the shadows.