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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion |
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In the United States, injuries are the leading cause of death and disability for people aged 1 to 44 years.1 Approximately 72% of all deaths among adolescents aged 10-24 years are attributed to injuries from only four causes: motor vehicle crashes (30%), all other unintentional injuries (15%), homicide (15%), and suicide (12%).1 Highly associated with these injuries are adolescent behaviors such as physical fights, carrying weapons, making a suicide plan, and not using seatbelts. In 2011, 33% of high school students had been in a physical fight in the past 12 months, 17% had carried a weapon in the past 30 days, 13% had made a plan about how they would attempt suicide in the past 12 months, and 8% never or rarely wore a seat belt when riding in a car.2
Unintentional Injuries, Violence, and the
Health of Young People
Addressing Safety
[pdf 1.7MB]
School Health Policies and Programs Study
SHPPS is a national survey periodically conducted to assess school health
policies and programs at the state, district, school, and classroom
levels, including those related to preventing injury, violence, and
suicide.
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
The YRBSS monitors behaviors that contribute markedly to the leading
causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults in
the United States.
National Vital Statistics System
Mortality Among Teenagers Aged 12-19 Years: United States, 1999-2006
The five leading causes of death among teenagers are unintentional injuries, homicide, suicide, cancer, and heart disease. Unintentional injuries account for nearly one-half of all teenage deaths, and of the unintentional injury deaths, 73% are the result of motor vehicle crashes.
Electronic Aggression: Aggression is no longer limited to the school yard. This special issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health contains 10 articles describing how electronic media—blogs, instant messaging, chat rooms, email, text messaging and the Internet—are providing new arenas for youth violence to occur.
See Injury & Violence: School Health Guidelines, including the full text as published in the MMWR, summary of the guidelines and slide presentation.
The School Health Index can help schools implement school health guidelines and related strategies. This self-assessment and planning tool enables schools to identify the strengths and weaknesses of health promotion policies and programs and assists schools in developing an action plan for improving the school environment.
Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (HECAT). The Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (HECAT) can help school districts, schools, and others conduct a clear, complete, and consistent analysis of health education curricula based on the National Health Education Standards and CDC’s Characteristics of Effective Health Education Curricula. The HECAT results can help schools select or develop appropriate and effective health education curricula and improve the delivery of health education to address safety, violence prevention, and other health education topics. The HECAT can be customized to meet local community needs and conform to the curriculum requirements of the state or school district.
Registries of Programs Effective in Reducing Youth Risk Behaviors. Various federal agencies have identified youth-related programs that they consider worthy of recommendation based on expert opinion or a review of design and research evidence. These programs focus on different health topics, risk behaviors, and settings including violence.
School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth. Students who feel connected to school believe that adults and peers in the school care about their learning as well as about them as individuals. When students feel connected to school, they are less likely to engage in a variety of risk behaviors, including violence and gang involvement. Connected students are also more likely to have higher grades and test scores, have better school attendance, and stay in school longer. This document provides school administrators and teachers with strategies they can use to enhance school connectedness among students.
Documents on this page are available in Portable Document Format (PDF). Learn more about viewing and printing these documents with Acrobat Reader.
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Page last reviewed: June 7, 2012
Division of Adolescent
and School Health
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