If you are a senior at Bromfield, the odds are high that you have recently either texted while driving or ridden with someone who was doing so. And if you’re an eighth-grader getting together with five friends, it’s likely that at least one of the group has sexted—sent sexually explicit messages or photos by phone or email.
Those two risky behaviors, reported by the 2016 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, were among the ones that seemed most concerning to the few parents who attended a Jan. 18 meeting to hear the results of the survey. Nearly half the 12th-graders in the Class of 2016 (45 percent) reported they had texted or checked social media while driving in the month before the survey. And, as one parent pointed out, the consequences of texting while driving can be immediate and deadly. Likewise, about 17 percent of eighth-graders in 2016 said they had engaged in sexting, which can include posting pictures online that may surface years later during college or job applications, as other parents noted.
Since 1998, Emerson Hospital has conducted the behavior survey every two years at middle and high schools in the region. In March 2016, Harvard and seven other nearby school districts, including Acton, Concord, Littleton, Maynard, and Groton, took part, with students in grades 6, 8, and 9–12 anonymously answering a range of questions. (Results are always reported more than a year after the survey itself, once they are tabulated and analyzed.)
While area students generally follow similar behavior patterns, Harvard students seem to adopt some risky behaviors earlier than kids in the region as a whole. For example, sexting seems to begin earlier in Harvard, as does the use of tobacco, e-cigarettes, marijuana, and alcohol (including binge drinking). Harvard students are also likely to have attended a party where teens were allowed to use alcohol much earlier than average for all towns in the survey.
On the other hand, the use of cocaine and opioids, along with the misuse of prescription drugs, among Harvard students tracks very closely with that of students in the other towns. The same is true for most sexual behavior covered in the survey, except for sexting.
Suicide, stress, and lack of sleep
As in past years, the school guidance staff is particularly concerned about teen suicide risks. A higher percentage of Harvard students report seriously considering suicide than do students in other schools. And, as Bromfield Principal Scott Hoffman pointed out, in a class of 100 students, a figure of 1 percent who have attempted suicide means one student—and that is one too many.
For the past several years, the School Committee and administrators have sought to address the high levels of academic stress that Harvard students have reported. In the 2016 survey, about 60 percent of students in grades 9–12 reported being stressed by their academic workload, while 44 percent felt stress from other events at school and 29 percent from pressure at home. High as those numbers are, students’ academic stress seems to have declined a few percentage points from earlier years. But stress from other events at school has risen.
In terms of physical health, the vast majority of students from eighth grade through high school are getting less than the recommended seven hours of sleep. By senior year, more than 90 percent report sleeping less than seven hours. Moreover, the share of students who are not getting enough sleep has risen rather sharply since 2012, leading one parent at the meeting to suggest that the nighttime use of cellphones might be a factor.
While the survey shows changes in student behavior over time, changes have also been apparent in the local community’s response to the survey. Harvard first took part in the survey in 2012, and in 2013 about 100 parents attended an assembly in Cronin Auditorium to hear those results. Two years later, about 40 parents came to hear the results in 2015. And last week, perhaps because the meeting was rescheduled from Wednesday because of snow, only about 10 parents were present. They were outnumbered by the school administrators, guidance staff members, and other school personnel who attended to answer questions and describe programs in place to help students cope with these risks.
The wide range of topics covered by the survey includes eating habits, physical activity, and more. The Bromfield School website has two links for this study. The following is a link to the report appendices that provide the best graphical summaries of the study results: http://bit.ly/2rxKCSv.
