The Communities That Care Coalition’s Teen Health Survey has brought some important issues specific to that age group to light, giving Franklin County and the North Quabbin region more to celebrate than not, according to those who worked on it.
Every year, the Communities That Care Coalition coordinates the implementation of the survey to check the pulse of youth health throughout the county and beyond, according to Kat Allen, co-coordinator of the Communities That Care Coalition’s Partnerships for Youth. While this year’s survey showed that some students feel school climate, before schools closed in March, wasn’t as positive as they’d thought in the three previous years, teen vaping has decreased.
Allen said in every survey the team has done, there is always good news and not so good news. But because the data was gathered during February and March, just before mass school closings, it “speaks to a time that feels foreign now” and it’s unclear how students will feel when they finally return to school.
Eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders across nine school districts reported a slight drop in their assessment of school climate, dropping a bit less than 20 points since 2017 in each category measure on a 500-point scale. While there was some slippage, each remained within a range deemed “favorable” by federal researchers who developed the survey, Allen said.
The Partnership for Youth staff members that analyzed the data, including Program Evaluator Sage Shea, Evaluator Emeritus Jeanette Voas and Allen are now asking the questions, “What is driving the shift?” and “Is the school climate worse for some students than others?”
While the difference is of note, Allen said, it is far smaller than anyone on the team expected. She said they are left wondering if school climate is actually worse or the perception of it is.
“We know that people with marginalized identities are often targets of discrimination and more susceptible to worse outcomes,” Shea said. “We also know that marginalized identities can compound as they’re added onto each other. We started tallying students’ identities based on if they were more privileged or oppressed and also accounted for the precariousness of their living situation — whether they were currently or formerly in foster care, homeless or had access to food, among other measures.”
Shea said comparing the rates of the more marginalized students to those who are more privileged is where a 20-point difference on the 500-point scale was found. The team said it’s possible, with the rise of political awareness among students and the increase of discussions around “complex social structures,” that students are seeing their schools in a different light than they had in years past.
“Regardless of whether the changes are tangible or perceived or both, we all want to work to improve students’ experiences at school,” Shea said. “While the change in numbers over the past three years is small, I suspect with remote and hybrid schooling students’ relationships with their schools will be more strained than ever.”
On a more positive note, the team reported that vaping rates have been in rapid decline, peaking in 2019 with 32 percent of students reporting having vaped within the 30 days prior to the survey. By comparison, only 20 percent reported they had done the same this time.
Groups that had formerly been high users, including transgender and LGBQ+ students, are now using at lower rates than their straight peers, and while there are gaps between lower- and higher-income students, as well as white students and students of color, all have reported substantial declines in use over the last year.
“These changes are the result of new laws, school intervention and community awareness campaigns,” Allen said. “If there’s anything that the data can show that feels relevant to right now, it’s that a coordinated, community-wide approach can have profound impacts.”
The Communities That Care Coalition’s 2020 presentation of the data is available online at communitiesthatcarecoalition.org.
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.