At Risk: Health Council Assesses Trends in Teen Behavior

By IAN FEIN

Have you ever tried smoking a cigarette, even one or two puffs? On
an average school day, how many hours do you watch TV? During the past
seven days, how many times did you eat green salad?

These are the types of questions that Vineyard students in sixth
through twelfth grade will be asked in an anonymous youth risk behavior
survey, which will be conducted next month for the first time in three
years.

Results should give the Island community - and especially
parents and school leaders - a solid understanding of the healthy
and not so healthy behavior of Vineyard youth.

Similar teen risk surveys were taken in Island schools in 2000 and
in 2002 but were suspended when money from a state grant funding the
surveys dried up.

This year, the youth task force of the Dukes County Health Council
picked up the cause and rallied schools and other nonprofit
organizations for money.

"We want to find out whether the Vineyard is being responsive
to kids, or are there trends we need to look harder at," said task
force member Michael Joyce Sr., longtime Edgartown School guidance
counselor who retired in 2001. "Let's see where we
stand."

Results from the earlier studies alarmed school officials and some
members of the community. According to the survey, Island high school
students partook in binge drinking, driving drunk, and smoking marijuana
at rates significantly higher than other students across the state.

Vineyard high school students also reported having sex about as much
as their peers statewide, but results showed they used condoms at a much
higher rate.

Martha's Vineyard Regional High School principal Margaret
(Peg) Regan said she was looking forward to obtaining more recent data,
to see how the health trends have changed over the last few years.

"I'm pleased about continuing this longitudinal study,
because one or two snapshots don't really help that much,"
she said. "You really need to see progression over time of
kids' uses and abuses and at-risk behavior."

The 2000 and 2002 surveys indicated that cigarette smoking had
decreased among Island youth, but students in the sixth through eighth
grade reported increased sexual activity and alcohol and drug use over
the same period.

The survey questions are similar to ones posed to teenagers across
the state in a survey of high schools randomly selected by the state
department of education.

The statewide data allows the Vineyard to compare the at-risk
behavior of its youth to trends across the commonwealth. Behavior
surveys are not administered statewide to students in the sixth through
eighth grade.

Mrs. Regan emphasized that this year's survey will also try to
evaluate positive health trends of Vineyard teens.

"If 47 per cent of kids are drinking in ninth and tenth
grades, then we want to know what the other 53 per cent of kids that
aren't drinking are doing with their time," she said.
"We want to focus on the positive too, because otherwise it
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."

School officials will also see an outside organization taking charge
of the behavior survey this year.

"Drug and abuse issues are community-wide issues.
They're not just school-wide," said interim superintendent
of Vineyard schools Paul Dulac. "The more of us that work on it
the better."

Schools are shouldering some of the cost, however. Administrators
agreed to support and administer the survey - with each of the
five Island school districts donating $725 to the effort. The remainder
of the estimated $8,900 cost to print the survey and compile the results
will come from Martha's Vineyard Community Services and private
foundations.

"When we're done with all this, the task force in effect
will be reporting back to the community at large," Mr. Joyce said.
"We see it as our job to get the data, present it to the public
and all the agencies that deal with youth. Schools are obviously a major
and vital part of that, but they may not be the most important to talk
to at first."

The results will also allow other Island organizations to apply for
grants aimed at youth. Data from the past surveys helped the schools
secure a $950,000 federal grant that allowed the YMCA of Martha's
Vineyard to provide after-school programs for Island children and the
establishment of a teen center in Oak Bluffs.

Although the task force organized this year's survey, it will
be administered through the schools, including the Martha's
Vineyard Public Charter School.

Regional high school guidance counselor Michael McCarthy said the
students will likely take the test during the second week of April. Mr.
Joyce said he did not know the turnaround as to when results will be
available, though past study results were ready within a few months.

The task force hopes to put together a public presentation of the
results, and possibly organize a series of forums much like the monthly
health care forums currently being held.

"The risk survey could be a supplement to a bigger look at
health issues for our Island youth - such as dental care and
health services," Mr. Joyce said. "What's it like out
there for kids ages 12 to 20? Are there gaps or kids not being served?
We hope it will be part of bigger examination of the health of our
youth."