Federal Resources

CDC's overview topic page on adolescent health, including alcohol, tobacco, and substance use; adolescent injuries; and youth violence.

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is the world’s largest, ongoing telephone health survey system, tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States yearly since 1984. Currently, data are collected monthly in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam.

A special online supplement from the Journal of Adolescent Health reports on the findings of an expert panel convened by the CDC to better understand the link between bullying and suicide-related behaviors. 

This report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 1 in 88 children in the United States has been identified as having an autism spectrum disorder and more children are being diagnosed by age 3.

The effects of a disaster, terrorist attack, or other public health emergency can be long-lasting, and the resulting trauma can reverberate even with those not directly affected by the disaster. This page provides general strategies for promoting mental health and resilience that were developed by various organizations based on experiences in prior disasters.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) works to protect public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions, and it promotes health through partnerships with state health departments and other organizations.

This Web site provides information on and links to school health strategies, research and evaluation tools, Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, evidence-based guidelines for school health programs, and adolescent and school health program resources and tools.

This CDC website provides information on youth mental health, including information on school policies and programs to support youth mental health.

The Guide to Community Preventive Services is a free resource listing programs and policies that improve health and prevent disease.  The Program Planning Resources section of the site outlines the types of steps that are generally used in program planning, along with selected resources that may be useful at each step.

CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health provides evaluation technical assistance to Funded Partners through a variety of evaluation resources and tools.

As the Nation's principal health statistics agency, this site compiles statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve the health of our people.

This collection of articles from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth analyzes some of the most prominent mental health issues facing at-risk youth in order to provide youth workers with insight into the prevention and treatment of mental health challenges. Post-traumatic stress disorder, the risks and uses of psychotropic medications, and postpartum depression in teen mothers are discussed. 

This report, from the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provides comprehensive estimates of the number of children and youth in the United States living with specific mental disorders and outlines federal efforts to monitor the prevalence of these disorders and the impact they have on the mental health of young people

NCFY is a free information service for Community, organizations, and individuals interested in developing new and effective strategies for supporting young people and their families. Their website includes youth development resources, funding announcements for FYSB's programs, free publications, and a calendar of conferences and trainings.

To address the challenges faced by students living in communities of concentrated poverty, Promise Neighborhoods grantees and their partner organizations will plan to provide services from early learning to college and career, including programs to improve the health, safety, and stability of neighborhoods, and boost family engagement in student learning.

Produced by the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth, this interview with Laurel Kiser, of the University of Maryland’s Family-Informed Trauma Treatment Center, discusses the potential negative effects of anticipatory stress and highlights Strengthening Family Coping Resources, a multi-week program that Kiser and her colleagues facilitate that helps families deal with recurring stressors.

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created suicide prevention resources developed from federal and local partnerships. The site contains information about a national strategy for suicide prevention, data and trends, and youth-specific information. 

As part of the second CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report, this report provides current data on suicide in the United States by sex, race/ethnicity, age, and educational attainment and suggests ways to reduce the rates of suicide among groups that are disproportionately affected. 

This article describes a recent study on whether new mothers dealing with past trauma would be able to develop an attachment to their babies. If the mothers could develop an attachment, the study examined if addressing the mother’s issue would help with bonding. The results show that all the mothers in the study who were dealing with past trauma had trouble bonding with others and over 75% of the mothers with unresolved trauma had insecurely attached infants. The researchers found that being in the process of dealing with past trauma can help mothers form secure bonds with their children, despite the mothers themselves having difficulty attaching to others around them. 

CDC shares the risk and protective factors, warning signs, and sources of help for suicide. 

This article highlights the work of two researchers who are pioneering changes in sex education that bridge the gap between sex education and trauma-informed care by better understanding how sex education could be more sensitive to students’ traumatic experiences. This article also offers tips, based on this research, for implementing a trauma informed approach to sex education. 

The recording is now available for the webinar, Bullying Prevention and Suicide Prevention for Schools: A Digital Approach From SAMHSA, presented by SAMHSA and the American School Health Association. The webinar provided an overview of the risk and impact of bullying and suicide in school-aged children and highlighted the connection between these public health issues and the "whole child" concept. The webinar also showcased SAMHSA's mobile applications, KnowBullying and Suicide Safe, and other key tools to promote bullying prevention and suicide prevention in schools. 

This slideshow highlights five types of professionals that runaway and homeless youth program managers can collaborate with to support youth who have experienced trauma. 

This Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report illustrates the trends in ADHD diagnosis among children and adolescents, ages 5-17, between 1997 and 2014. Results show that the percentage of young people overall with diagnosed ADHD increased significantly among non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic children, while Hispanic children were the least likely to have diagnosed ADHD

This issue brief provides an overview of trauma and its effects, and describes some of the primary areas of consideration for state or county child welfare systems as they design and implement approaches that are more responsive to trauma.