Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jul;38(6):843-851.
doi: 10.1177/08901171241239735. Epub 2024 Mar 16.

Reliability of the 2021 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey Questionnaire

Sherry Everett Jones  1 , Nancy D Brener  1 , Barbara Queen  2 , Molly Hershey-Arista  2 , William A Harris  1 , Jonetta J Mpofu  1 , J Michael Underwood  1
Affiliations

Reliability of the 2021 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey Questionnaire

Sherry Everett Jones et al. Am J Health Promot. 2024 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) monitors behaviors, experiences, and conditions affecting the health of high school students nationwide. This study examined the test-retest reliability of the 2021 national YRBS questionnaire.

Design: Respondents completed a Time 1 and Time 2 paper-and-pencil questionnaire approximately 2 weeks apart during February to May 2022. Data were linked in such a way as to preserve anonymity.

Setting: Convenience sample of high schools.

Subjects: High school students (N = 588).

Measures: Health risk behaviors and experiences assessed on the 2021 national YRBS questionnaire.

Analysis: Time 1 and Time 2 responses were compared for each questionnaire item using the McNemar's test. Then, Cohen's kappa coefficients tested the agreement between Time 1 and Time 2 responses overall, and by sex, grade, and Black, White, and Hispanic race and ethnicity.

Results: Among the 74 items analyzed, 96% had at least moderate reliability, and 73% had substantial or almost perfect reliability. The mean Cohen's kappa was .68. McNemar's test findings showed Time 1 and Time 2 data significantly differed (P < .01) for 9 items (12%).

Conclusion: Reliable health behavior measures are important in the development of youth-focused public health programs and policies. Findings suggest the national YRBS questionnaire is a reliable instrument. Such findings lend support to relying on adolescent self-reported data when monitoring health behaviors using the YRBS.

Keywords: reliability; test-retest study; youth risk behavior survey.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC Brener ND, Kann L, et al. Methodology of the youth risk behavior surveillance system — 2013. MMWR (Morb Mortal Wkly Rep). 2013;62(RR-01):1–20. - PubMed
    1. Mpofu JJ, Underwood JM, Thornton J, et al. Overview and methods for the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System — United States, 2021. MMWR (Morb Mortal Wkly Rep) 2023; 72(1):1–12. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Foti K, Balaji A, Shanklin S. Uses of Youth Risk Behavior Survey and School Health Profiles data: applications for improving adolescent and school health. J Sch Health 2011;81: 345–354. - PubMed
    1. Smith Grant J, Pierre K, Stinson J, et al. The increasing utility of school health data to guide evidence-based interventions. J Sch Health. 2022;92(12):1214–1216. - PubMed
    1. Brener ND, Kann L, McManus T, Kinchen SA, Sundberg EC, Ross JG. Reliability of the 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire. J Adolesc Health 2002;31: 336–342. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources