2015 Ottawa County YAS Report for Female Youth …

1 CategoryN% Level8th grade114835%10th Ottawa County YAS Report for Female Youth Introduction The gender r eports are an addendum to the 2015 Ottawa County Youth Assessment Survey (YAS) featuring either the responses of males or females alone. Since the YAS has been administered every odd year since 2005, there are now six survey years of data to more closely examine the current status and historical trends in both risky and beneficial behavior among male and Female Youth in Ottawa County . Selected Highlights of this YAS Sub-Group Report While looking through each respective gender Report you may notice some of the following: Among males who reported being in a relationship in the past year, all five questions are trending in thenegative direction ( as recipients of unhealthy behaviors in a relationship). Females have a significantly higher proportion of depression and suicide behaviors when compared tomales, and all of these behaviors are trending in the negative direction.

2 Perceptions about marijuana and most other drug use is trending in the negative direction for females. Females are trending negatively in their use of heroin and hallucinogens, while males are trendingpositively. Females are trending down in healthy weight and up in obesity, in contrast males are trending up inhealthy weight and down in obesity. Higher proportions of males have bad nutrition when compared to females. Higher proportions of females Report being bullied when compared to males. Fewer YAS measures are moving in the right direction for females than for males. Of the 167 YASmeasures that have enough years of data to test for statistically significant linear trends, ofmeasures have beneficial trends for females compared to for males. Conversely, ofmeasures have negative trends for females compared to for males. Considering all of the sub-group reports together, male students had the most measures trending in abeneficial direction ( ) while Hispanic students had the least ( ).

3 Conversely, measures trendingin an unbeneficial direction were most prevalent among Female students ( ) and least prevalentamong male students (9%).2015 YAS - Female Participants 1 Interpreting the Results Data Presentation The data for Female Youth are displayed in five column areas: Issue Area survey questions are organized into issue areas Total N the number of females who responded to each question Total Responses starting with 2015 and going back to 2005; the number in parentheses beneath eachyear indicates the total number of Female respondents for the respective year 2015 Female responses by Grade Level 2015 Female responses by Race/EthnicityData Cells The number beneath each year is different in the optional Sexual Behavior section of the Report since some school systems elected not to include those questions. An n/a in any cell of the Total Responses columns indicates that the 2015 question was not asked in that year or has been changed enough that it is no longer comparable.

4 An **n/a indicates that results are suppressed in any sub category columns when there are fewer than 5 respondents. In each of the Report s data cells (Figure 1), the top number is the weighted percent of Female students reporting the behavior and the bottom number is the count of Female students who answered yes to the corresponding question. The number in parentheses beneath each year in the Total Responses section indicates the total number of Female respondents for the respective year. Issue Area Total N Three Different Categories TotalN2015(2722)2013(2388)2011(1735)2009 (1109)2007(757)2005(1016)8th10th12thWhit eHispanicOtherI stopped doing some usual activities during the past 12 months because I felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a (944)34%(775) (496) (267) (213) (288) (353) (299) (205) (608) (155) (179)During the past 12 months, I have seriously thought about attempting (598) (533) (301)n/an/ (230) (186) (125) (381) (87) (128)During the past 12 months, I made a plan about how to attempt (457) (365) (184)n/an/ (170) (143) (98) (293) (71)25%(91)I attempted suicide 1+ times in the past 12 months270110%(276) (233) (108) (79) (55) (98) (110) (84) (53) (155) (47) (74)Total Responses2015 by Grade2015 by Race/EthnicityDEPRESSION AND SUICIDEF igure 1.

5 Or 299 tenth grade females (353) (299) (205) (608) (155) (179) (230) (186) (125) (381) (87) (128)2015 by Grade2015 by or 353 eighth grade females Figure 2. 2 The results given for the Grade Level and Race/ Ethnicity categories show only 2015 data. Each data cell (Figure 2) contains the results that correspond to those females who reported the question out of the total Female respondents within each grade level or each race/ethnicity. In 2015, of 8th grade females (353 of all 8th grade Female respondents) versus of 10th gradefemales ( 299 of all 10th grade Female respondents) reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day fortwo weeks or more in a of Error Use caution when comparing the results of females between any given survey year, grade level or race/ethnicity. Because the YAS uses a representative sample of Youth among the whole population of 8th, 10th and 12th graders in Ottawa County , there is a small margin of error around each result; percentages that have small differences may actually not be statistically different from one another.

6 See page 10 of the 2015 YAS Report ( ) for more information about Margin of Error and the YAS. Methods The methodology of these reports is similar to the County -wide 2015 YAS Report (see the Methods section of the 2015 YAS Report ( ) for additional details regarding the methods of data preparation and analysis, as well as the limitations inherent in the YAS survey process). In the 2015 YAS there is an overrepresentation of 8th graders and an underrepresentation of 10th and 12th graders. To account for this, each student s data are assigned a post-stratification weight to improve how well the results actually represent student responses from participating schools. This is done by comparing the actual number of respondents in 8th, 10th and 12th grades per school to the reported headcount for those grade levels per school. While this Report only contains responses from females, the possibility for a skewed representation bygrade still existed. Due to this, the same post-stratification weights used in the County -wide YAS reportare used in the gender reports to make the data more comparable to Ottawa County s true proportion ofmales and females.

7 All percentages in this Report are weighted; all student counts are not weighted. Since the questions in the Sexual Behavior section were optional for schools, not all students had thesequestions. The number of Female respondents, and the post-stratification weight used for eachrespondent, is different for this a subset of the data was created containing only the desired gender the same analysis was run on the data as the County -wide 2015 YAS. This produced population proportion estimates for each behavior included in the YAS as well as linear trends for each behavior that had at least 3 years worth of data. Statistically significant linear trends are indicated by the symbols in the table below. See page 11 of the 2015 YAS Report ( ) for more information about use of linear trend analysis and the YAS. 3 Acknowledgments Thank you A special thank you to the school district superintendents, school principals, administrators, teachers, parents and students for participating in the 2015 Ottawa County Youth Assessment Survey (YAS).

8 Planning and implementation of this study was coordinated by the YAS Committee, whose time and efforts were invaluable in making this project possible. Analysis Data analysis and Report provided by Ottawa County Department of Public Health Epidemiologist Marcia Mansaray, and Grand Valley State University Associate Analyst Zachary Weber. The data was collected from October 2015 through early December 2015, and published May 2016. Funding Provided by Allendale Community Foundation Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area Coopersville Area Community Foundation County of Ottawa Grand Haven Area Community FoundationYAS Committee Kristin Speer, Greater Ottawa County United Way Leigh Moerdyke, Pathways, MI Liz DeLaLuz, Greater Ottawa County United Way Marcia Mansaray, Ottawa County Department of Public Health Sandra Boven, Ottawa County Department of Public Health Stacey Sills, Ottawa Area Intermediate School District Stephanie VanderKooi, Lakeshore Regional Entity4 TotalN2015(2722)2013(2388)2011(1735)2009 (1109)2007(757)2005(1016)8th 10th 12th White Hispanic OtherI rode in a vehicle driven by someone who had been drinking alcohol during the past 30 (429)17%(391)20%(331) (181) (203) (171) (118) (93)14%(297) (66) (63)I drove a vehicle after drinking alcohol during the past 30 days (among those who drive) (43)6%(42) (40) (44) (37) (6) (8) (26) (30) (7) (6)

9 I texted or e mailed while driving in the past 30 days (among those who drive) (243) (329)n/a n/a n/a (12) (17) (192) (204) (13) (24)I did not go to school on one or more days in the past 30 days because of concerns about my safety at school or on the way to or from (184) (144) (76) (32) (53) (93)5%(45) (32) (109) (24) (49)I feel safe in my (2513)92%(2137) (1589) (1020) (683) (884) (1055) (704) (544) (1860) (281) (363)The following statements describe my neighborhood:Crime and/or drug (272) (287) (228) (106) (115) (128) (91) (83) (66) (163) (59) (49) (219)10%(243) (176) (91) (113) (167) (88) (66) (39) (124) (46) (49)Lots of empty or abandoned (91) (82) (89) (35) (41) (27) (46) (23)3%(15) (58) (13) (20)Lots of (74) (87) (79) (28) (40) (32) (30) (20) (14) (42) (15) (17)SAFETY2015 by Grade2015 by Race/EthnicityTotal Responses5 TotalN2015(2722)2013(2388)2011(1735)2009 (1109)2007(757)2005(1016)8th 10th 12th White Hispanic OtherI have carried a weapon such as a handgun, knife, or club in the past 30 days27016%(156) (116) (123)n/a n/a (62) (42) (37) (108) (13)8%(33)It would be very easy or sort of easy for me to obtain a (497)20%(460) (333) (179) (136) (183) (129) (156) (169) (375) (49) (71)I have been threatened or injured with a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club during the past 12 (203) (186) (127) (56) (54) (86) (94) (62) (32) (123) (21) (57)I have been in a physical fight during the past 12 (340)

10 (351) (300)16%(176) (160) (215) (163) (104) (44) (201) (59) (77)I have belonged to an organized (55) (42) (47) (24) (23)n/a3%(37) (7) (7) (26) (11) (16)I joined an organized gang for the first time before I turned 13 years old (among those who ever belonged to a gang) (37) (24)69%(33) (17)n/a n/a **n/a **n/a ** (20) (7)44%(9)I was asked to join an organized gang during the past 12 (84) (118) (84) (46)n/a (44) (23) (9) (30) (29)6%(23)I have been threatened by one or more members of an organized gang in the past 12 (67)3%(76) (53) (27)n/a (28) (23) (8) (33) (13) (19)I had sexual intercourse when I really did not wantto in the past 12 (120) (94) (102) (68)n/a (15) (45) (49) (88) (10)7%(19)When I had sexual intercourse when I really did not want to:I was physically forced9037%(37) (26) (26) (5)n/a n/a54%(5) (18) (10)**n/a **n/a **n/aI was (19) (15)n/a n/a n/a n/a **n/a **n/a **n/a **n/a **n/a **n/aI was made to feel (72) (63)n/a n/a n/a n/a57%(8)69%(28) (28)67%(52) (7) (11)I was under the influence of alcohol or (54) (40) (39)n/a n/a (6) (19) (24)44%(39) (5) (7)I felt like I had to in order to fit in with my (25)n/a n/a n/a n/a (5) (9) (8)**n/a **n/a **n/aTotal Responses2015 by Grade2015 by Race/EthnicityVIOLENCE RELATED BEHAVIORS6 TotalN2015(2722)2013(2388)2011(1735)2009 (1109)2007(757)2005(1016)8th 10th 12th White Hispanic OtherI felt uncomfortable saying (63)n/a n/a n/a n/a (9) (24) (24) (42) (8) (11)I did it because of some other (66)n/a n/a n/a n/a (10) (26) (24)52%(47) (9) (9)I have been physically harmed on purpose in my home in the past 12 (148) (180)n/a n/a n/a (62)8%(56) (18) (97) (19) (30)