Implications of a New Response Option for Questions About Driving in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey

• Activity Number: 349
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 : 10:30 AM to 11:15 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Emily Olsen*+ and Ruth A. Shults
• Companies: CDC and CDC
• Keywords: Youth Risk Behavior Survey ; survey development ; adolescents

Abstract

The national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) has been conducted biennially since 1991 and monitors priority health risk behaviors among US high school students, including drinking and driving and texting while driving (TWD). The similar sampling design, survey administration process, and identical question wording across all years of the survey allow for analysis to determine temporal changes in prevalence of each risk behavior. However, the 2013 YRBS cycle included a new response option for two driving-related questions: "I did not drive." Previous cycles only allowed students to respond they had done a behavior on "0 days" rather than selecting they did not drive. This analysis aims to determine the implications of this new response option on our trend analysis of the drinking and driving and TWD questions, as well as to better understand the nature of the missing responses in previous survey cycles. We compare results for these two questions from the 2011 and 2013 national YRBSs. In addition, we make recommendations about the implications about how to use the results from these different versions of the drinking and driving and TWD questions.