Students to take health survey
October 8, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Snoqualmie Valley students in grades six, eight, ten and twelve will receive the Healthy Youth Survey the week of Oct. 13-17. The anonymous survey, which takes approximately 45 minutes, will ask students questions about their health, habits and quality of life.
The Healthy Youth Survey, administered in even-numbered years, began in 1988. Students can opt out of the survey and read independently if they choose not to take it. There are no survey make-ups; absent students who miss the survey will not be able to participate.
Parents wishing to view the survey can visit the front office of their child’s school and ask to see a copy.
There are two forms of the test. Some questions will be asked multiple times but in different ways. If a student answers these questions differently, their test will become invalid and not be included with the final results. In 2006, for example, the district invalidated eight of the 382 eighth-grade surveys, said Steve Bates a counselor at Opstad Elementary and the Safe and Drug Free Schools coordinator for the district.
Kristy Sullivan, a school board member and executive director of the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network, uses the survey results to start conversations about student needs.
“This is really one time that we hear the kid’s voice,” Sullivan said. “It’s a chance for kids to honestly say what is going on with them. This is their chance to speak up and tell adults what is going on. And we pay attention.”
Questions range from “During the past seven days, on how many days did you ride in a car with someone who was smoking cigarettes?” to “During the average week, on how many days do you participate in supervised after-school activities either at school or away from school?”
In the past, the survey has served as an impetus to start programs, such as the Natural Helpers at Mount Si High School. Sullivan uses the survey results addressing drug and substance use to maintain the network’s $100,000 Drug Free Communities grant. The idea for the teen health center, which is slated to begin at the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital’s North Bend Clinic this winter, began after the network analyzed survey results.
“If we didn’t have the Healthy Youth Survey, we would have to scramble for some other way to get that information,” Sullivan said.
Other survey questions concentrate on asthma and diabetes.
“Asthma has come up as a pretty big health concern more recently,” said Bates.
The survey also addresses depression and suicide — although there will be fewer of these questions on the sixth-grade survey.
Once the results are published in March, Sullivan said she plans to look at correlations between thoughts of suicide and other issues, including bullying, drug use, harassment and sexual orientation.
“We will be taking a close look at suicide and seeing how, as a community, we can address that issue,” Sullivan said.
Some survey questions ask students to consider their perceptions and relationship with the community. The questions range from, “How wrong would most adults in your neighborhood think it was for kids your age to use marijuana?” to “Are there are adults in my neighborhood I could talk to about something important.”
“Because it’s a statewide survey, it aligns with questions from nationwide surveys and it gives us an indication to how our kids relate to state and national students,” Sullivan said.
An independent company tallies the results and sends them to the school district. The district and network, working with evaluators Kevin Haggerty and Jan-Olov Johansson, will present the findings at a community forum in May.
Phoebe Terhaar, prevention intervention specialist with the Puget Sound Education Service District, said she plans to help present the survey results with a student team of risk and protector factor actors. The students will act out several scenarios demonstrating the risks a child could face before suggesting protection factors that could protect against the risks.
For more information, visit www.hys.wa.gov.
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com. To comment on the story, go to www.snovalleystar.com.
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