Published April 17, 2018 This content is archived.
Analyzing and designing the Youth Risk Behavior Survey
Supporting Buffalo Public Schools with youth risk behavior data
Corey Bower, assistant professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, is partnering with the Buffalo Public Schools to analyze and disseminate the results of the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and redesign the survey for its use in the district in 2019. The collaboration is part of the UB Graduate School of Education Faculty in Residence Program.
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey includes questions from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scale. “We set out to examine the relationship between ACE scores and academic outcomes,” said Bower, “but found that different questions correlated positively and negatively with different outcomes.” Bower notes that this difference contrasts with prior research.
Bower is investigating why the ACE scale does not relate to academic outcomes the way that it relates to health outcomes. “With a growing emphasis on stress and trauma in youth,” said Bower, “measuring these outcomes precisely has become even more important.” Bower has expanded the ACE questions and added additional questions to the survey to help explain these findings.
The Faculty in Residence Program is an initiative designed to engage GSE faculty and local community-based educational institutions in site-based, mutually beneficial research-based projects. Projects must demonstrate clear benefits to the community and may include a wide-range of researchable topics.
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