Federal Resources

This CDC website provides resources for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) youth and their friends, educators and school administrators, and parents and family members on how to support LGBT youth around issues such as bullying, sexuality and sexual health, education, homelessness, and more. 

CDC’s DASH developed the factsheet, “Parents’ Influence on the Health of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Teens: What Parents and Families Should Know," which provides information for parents on how they can support and promote healthy outcomes for their LGTBQ teens. 

This study aims to understand the health-related behaviors that contribute to negative health outcomes among sexual minority youth and how the prevalence of these behaviors compares with that of nonsexual minorities. Data came from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which for the first time included questions about sexual identity and sex of sexual contacts. The report found that sexual minority youth experienced substantially higher levels of physical and sexual violence and bullying, and were at increased risk for suicide. 

This report uses data from the 2015 and 2017 cycles of the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey to examine differences in eight sexual risk behaviors between subgroups of sexual minority youth and nonsexual minority youth, as well as within sexual minority youth. 

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 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.

This manual presents a summary of the teen pregnancy prevention strategy, Getting to Outcomes (GTO). GTO is a science-based approach for how to set goals, consider and plan for a prevention program, develop and conduct process and outcome evaluation, and learn how to improve and sustain a program’s intended outcomes.

Data from this Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from January 2012 offers insight into current statistics about teens not using contraception, teens who give birth,  the risks of early childbearing, and why this is a public health issue. The data was collected from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), which collects state-specific, population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy.

The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (NYRBS) monitors priority health risk behaviors that contribute to health and social problems among youth and young adults. This report shows trends, from the data gathered from NYRBS, in sexual behavior among youth and young adults from 1991 to 2009.

This report illustrates the percentage of births among teens that were preterm, organized by race and ethnicity. Preterm births declined for each racial/ethnic group, except among non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander teens, where the change was not significant. In 2014, the percentage of births that were preterm was higher among non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander teens than among other groups. 

This report highlights recent data that show, from 2007 to 2014, the preterm birth rate decreased for all age groups, and the overall birth rate for teens and women aged 20-24 years also decreased. The changing distribution of maternal age might indicate success of programs to prevent teen and unintended pregnancies. 

The possibility of public health emergencies arising in the United States concerns many people in the wake of recent hurricanes, tsunamis, acts of terrorism, and the threat of pandemic influenza. Taking advance action helps people deal with disasters of all sorts much more effectively when they do occur. To help, CDC and the American Red Cross have teamed up to answer common questions and provide step-by-step guidance.

This website is CDC’s primary source of information and resources for preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. This site continues to keep the public informed about public health emergencies and provides the information needed to protect and save lives. The site features specific information and resources focused on different types of disasters including bioterrorism, chemical emergencies, natural disasters, radiation emergencies, mass casualties, and others.

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.

Schools and education agencies cannot prevent natural disasters, or even many man-made crises, but they can help students prepare for and plan to respond to such emergencies. Resources are available to help schools, education agencies, and institutions of higher education develop such plans, usually in collaboration with public health and first responder agencies.

This issue of The Dialogue (PDF, 18 pages) focuses on environmental disasters and resiliency. Articles address the effects from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and integrating community organizations into resilience trainings, the looming threat of climate change, and culturally competent support and resilience training for 911 telecommunicators. 

As “back to school” time gets underway, this blog post provides tips for parents for creating an emergency plan and helping their children be prepared for potential emergencies.