The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is a national survey conducted by the CDC that tracks health-related behaviors and experiences among high school students across the United States. Administered every two years in both public and private schools, it is the largest and longest-running survey focused specifically on adolescent health risks, covering everything from mental health and substance use to sexual behavior and physical activity.
What the Survey Measures
The YRBS is part of a broader system called the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), which was designed with several specific goals: determine how often unhealthy behaviors occur among young people, track whether those behaviors are increasing or decreasing over time, compare patterns across different groups of adolescents, and monitor progress toward national health objectives like the Healthy People goals set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The survey asks students about behaviors and experiences that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among young people and adults. These include topics related to violence and safety, mental health and suicidality, tobacco and alcohol use, other drug use, sexual behaviors, and nutrition and physical activity. Because the same core questions are repeated every two years, the data reveals trends that would be invisible in a one-time snapshot.
How the Survey Works
The national YRBS is conducted during the spring semester of odd-numbered years. The CDC selects a representative sample of high schools and classrooms. For the 2019 cycle, 13,677 students completed the questionnaire across 136 schools. Students fill out the survey in a classroom setting, answering questions anonymously.
Beyond the national survey, state and local education agencies can run their own versions using the same framework. This layered approach produces data at the national, state, territorial, tribal, and local levels, giving communities a detailed picture of what their own students are dealing with rather than relying solely on national averages.
How Student Privacy Is Protected
Anonymity is the foundation of the entire survey. No student names are attached to responses, survey administrators are required to sign confidentiality agreements, and any tracking documents used during data collection are destroyed after analysis is complete. The CDC’s guidance on the matter is blunt: if you cannot conduct the survey while maintaining student privacy, you should not do the survey at all.
Parental permission is required before any student participates. Schools use one of two approaches. Active permission requires a parent to return a signed form authorizing their child’s participation. Passive permission (sometimes called parental opt-out) assumes consent unless a parent returns a form specifically denying it. Some states and districts mandate active permission. Either way, parents can review the full questionnaire at the school before deciding.
These protections serve a practical purpose beyond ethics. Students are far more likely to answer honestly about sensitive topics like drug use, sexual activity, or suicidal thoughts when they trust their responses cannot be traced back to them. Higher honesty means more accurate data, which makes the survey more useful for everyone.
What Recent Data Shows
The most recent cycle, conducted in 2023, paints a sobering picture of adolescent mental health. Nearly 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. About 28.5% experienced poor mental health, 20.4% seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9.5% had actually attempted suicide.
The data reveals sharp disparities by sex and sexual identity. Over half of female students (52.6%) reported persistent sadness or hopelessness, compared to 27.7% of male students. Female students were roughly twice as likely as male students to have seriously considered suicide (27.1% vs. 14.1%) and to have attempted it (12.6% vs. 6.4%).
LGBQ+ students reported the highest rates across every mental health indicator. Nearly two-thirds (65.7%) experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness, and 41% seriously considered attempting suicide, compared to 13% of heterosexual students. These patterns are not new. Six consecutive YRBS cycles spanning 2011 through 2021 have shown the same gender gap, and rates of suicidal ideation increased significantly among Black, Hispanic, and White female students and Hispanic male students between 2019 and 2021. The high rates of poor mental health that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic have continued to climb.
Why the Data Matters
The YRBS is not just an academic exercise. Its data feeds directly into federal health planning. The Healthy People initiative, which sets measurable public health objectives for the nation each decade, uses YRBS numbers as benchmarks. When policymakers debate funding for school counselors, anti-bullying programs, or sex education, YRBS data is often the evidence they point to.
At the state and local level, the survey helps school districts identify which problems are most pressing in their own communities. A district might discover that its students report much higher rates of vaping than the national average, or that bullying has dropped after a new intervention. Without standardized, repeated measurement, schools and public health agencies would be making decisions based on anecdote rather than evidence. The biennial schedule ensures the data stays current enough to catch emerging problems, like the rapid rise in adolescent mental health crises that the survey has documented over the past decade.