Breadcrumb
- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
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.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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.
Girls Health
Girlshealth.gov is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health, and is the "daughter" program of the National Women's Health Information Center (www.womenshealth.gov). Girlshealth.gov provides valuable information about ways girls can achieve a healthy lifestyle helping them to understand their body, mind, and spirit as they grow into adults.
New Report on Prevalence of Teen Dating Violence
This press release from the American Psychological Association reports findings from a study that used data from a national CDC survey and found that more than one in three teens had experienced dating violence.
Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization — National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, United States, 2011
This report describes the overall prevalence of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization in the United States using data from 2011. It reveals that nearly 54% of all female victims and 48% of all male victims experienced their first victimizations before age 25, many of whom were first victimized during childhood or adolescence.
Q&A: The CDC Takes a Comprehensive Approach to Teen Dating Violence Prevention
The CDC is leading an initiative to test Dating Matters, a teen dating violence prevention program that includes evidence-based and evidence-informed curricula and training for middle school students, their parents, teachers, and others. This Q&A with Andra Tharp, the CDC health scientist who leads the initiative, explains what she and her colleagues hope to achieve with this project.
Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere
A national initiative to prevent youth violence before it starts. STRYVE's vision is safe and healthy youth who can achieve their full potential as connected and contributing members of thriving, violence-free families, schools, and communities. Their website includes training materials focused on understanding youth violence, the public health approach, and creating a plan along with a wealth of other resources and information.
Updated Training: DATING MATTERS® — Understanding Teen Dating Violence Prevention
CDC released an updated version of its VetoViolence training, DATING MATTERS®: Understanding Teen Dating Violence Prevention. DATING MATTERS ® is a free online course available to educators, school personnel, youth mentors, and other professionals that highlights what teen dating violence is and how to prevent it. New features include a fresh user experience, graphic novel scenarios, interactive exercises, and updated resources.
Resource: DELTA FOCUS (Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancements and Leadership Through Alliances, Focusing on Outcomes for Communities United with States) Program
This program is a five-year cooperative agreement supporting 10 state domestic violence coalitions as they focus on primary prevention of intimate partner violence. A recent blog post summarizes DELTA FOCUS grantee coalition’s work and provides information for other organizations on engaging in violence prevention.
Resource: Dating Matters Interactive Guide on Informing Policy
This update to CDC’s Dating Matters online training helps professionals working in the injury and violence prevention field learn about evaluating teen dating violence policies, how they impact the problem, and how to use findings to inform and strengthen public health efforts.
Resource: Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Across the Lifespan: A Technical Package of Programs, Policies, and Practices
This technical package (PDF, 64 pages) highlights six strategies that represent the best-available evidence to prevent intimate partner violence and its consequences across the lifespan. Communities and states can use this resource to guide and inform decisions about programs, policies, and practices related to intimate partner violence prevention.
Preventing Teen Dating Violence and Youth Violence Program
Different types of violence are connected and often share the same root causes. CDC’s Preventing Teen Dating and Youth Violence by Addressing Shared Risk and Protective Factors program funds 5 local health departments to engage in primary prevention activities to prevent teen dating violence and youth violence.
CDC Pregnancy Prevention Web Page for Teens
CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health created a Web page especially for teens. Designed with input from teens, the Web page aims to motivate teens to make healthy choices about sex by providing empowering messages on specific actions that teens can take to prevent teen pregnancy. This effort is part of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Communitywide Initiative, which is a partnership between CDC and the HHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of Adolescent Health.
CDC Teen Pregnancy
This website from CDC provides information and data about teen pregnancy. Sections of the site target resources for parents, guardians, and health care providers. It also includes videos, podcasts, reports, a social media tool kit and other resources focused on teen pregnancy and teen pregnancy prevention.
CDC Show Your Love Campaign
Show Your Love is a national campaign that promotes preconception health and healthcare with the goal of increasing the number of women planning pregnancies, and engaging in healthy behaviors prior to conception, and encouraging women who do not want to become pregnant to choose healthy behaviors and achieve their goals.
CDC's Teen Pregnancy and Social Media
CDC provides a range of social media tools to promote your teen pregnancy prevention efforts. This quick reference guide can be used as a companion to the CDC Social Media Toolkit for Health Communicators [PDF- 3.76MB], and specifically highlights a number of social media tools with credible, science-based teen pregnancy prevention messages from the CDC. These free, easy-to-use communication tools can help expand the reach of your health messages and help increase public engagement.
Declines in State Teen Birth Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin
This report, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, illustrates that the teen birth rate in the United States declined 25 percent between 2007-2011, a record low, with the steepest declines seen for Hispanic teenagers.
Healthy Youth
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.
Preventing Pregnancies in Younger Teens
This fact sheet provides information about the issue of teen pregnancy among younger teens and what the federal government, doctors and nurses, parents, and teens themselves can do about it.
Patterns of Health Insurance Coverage Around the Time of Pregnancy Among Women with Live-Born Infants — Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), 29 States, 2009
This report summarizes 2009 PRAMS data from 29 states, presenting information on the prevalence of health insurance coverage stability the month before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and at the time of delivery. Results show most women had stable coverage across the three periods, with nearly one-third experiencing changes in health insurance coverage in the period between the month before pregnancy and the time of delivery. These changes were largely due to starting out uninsured or having private insurance before pregnancy and having Medicaid at delivery.
Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing of Teenagers Aged 15–19 in the United States
Using data from the 1988 to 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth, this report provides trends and recent national estimates of sexual activity, contraceptive use, and childbearing among teenagers ages 15-19. Key findings include:
- In 2011-2013, 44% of female teenagers and 47% of male teenagers had experienced sexual intercourse, percentages which have declined significantly over the past 25 years.
- Seventy-nine percent of female teenagers and 84% of male teenagers used a contraceptive method at first sexual intercourse, the most common of which was the condom.
- Young women who did not use a method of contraception at first sexual intercourse were twice as likely to become teen mothers as those who used a method.
Report: Births in the United States
This NCHS Data Brief presents several key demographic, maternal, and infant health indicators by race and Hispanic origin, using 2014 final birth data. The number of births in the United States increased slightly in 2014, with rates rising for non-Hispanic white and Asian or Pacific Islander women. There were historic lows for Hispanic women and American Indian or Alaska Native women. In 2014, teen childbearing fell to another historic low for each race and Hispanic origin group.
Report: Reduced Disparities in Birth Rates Among Teens Aged 15–19 Years — United States, 2006–2007 and 2013–2014
This Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report describes a study that examined trends in births for teens aged 15-19 by race/ethnicity and geography and analyzed the socioeconomic indicators previously associated with teen births. Results show significant declines in teen birth rates and birth rate ratios nationally and in many states, with the largest decline occurring among Hispanics (51%), followed by blacks (44%), and whites (35%).
2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Results
These reports present information about the percentages of high school and middle school students who engage in certain risk behaviors, along with the status of school health policies and programs designed to address those behaviors.
2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Results
The 2019 YRBS results present a promising picture for some behaviors and experiences among high school students; however, other areas reveal that teens are still engaging in behaviors that put them at risk. While these health risk behaviors vary by sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and grade, the 2019 YRBS results show that there is more work to do to help all teens create lifelong healthy behaviors.