Jacob Capron
Staff Writer
Just how many risks do teenagers take? In the week following Valentine’s Day, the Wyoming House of Representatives defeated an amendment to a bill that defunded the participation in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey back in 2016.
Wyoming is one of four states that does not participate in the survey, the others being Washington, Oregon and Minnesota. The survey collects data on a variety of health behaviors of middle school and high school students. The survey is designed and analyzed by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The questions range from how many days a week a person eats breakfast, to their encounters with and use of alcohol. However, the point of contention in the Wyoming Legislature was directed at a specific set of questions relating to students’ sexual behavior. The survey has recently added vaping to the list of topics it questions teens about.
“Most [of the questions] are not salacious” said Rep. Landon Brown (R-Laramie). “That happens a lot in legislation.”
Brown had originally co-sponsored the amendment, but changed his opinion after reading the questions that would be asked in the sexual behavior section of this survey.
“I was unaware of how egregious some of the questions were,” Brown said.
He said his main concern was about the issue of privacy, believing the government should not be allowed to collect information that are private and personal.
The problematic questions Brown identified were centered around when participants first had sexual intercourse, how many sexual partners they had and whether those partners were male, female or both.
“Understanding demographics is important. It is difficult to address issues if you don’t have the correct data for it, to ensure they are properly taught,” said Seth Jones, a UW senior.
Mike Yin (R-Teton) said the surveys were both anonymous and “voluntary, only those who want to [take the survey],” reassuring that anyone who is not comfortable is not required to take them.
John Brady, a UW graduate student, said he believes the voluntary aspect is a good thing, unconvinced the questions were problematic.
“Can’t you just leave those questions blank?” Brady said.
Oyedola Ajao, a UW senior, also agreed that the questions were unproblematic.
“I don’t think it’s a problem. As long as it’s anonymous, it’s not a big deal.”
Yin stressed the anonymity of the survey, where he said “the data is aggregated and that there is no way to personally identify participants.” Brown was aware of these facts and still uses privacy as his justification for voting against the amendment.
The second concern Brown had was the validity of the data collected. He mentioned back to a time when the surveys were still collected, how a small Wyoming county claimed the community to be 17% African-American, but the statistics were false.
“If it was not useful, why would the CDC use [the survey] for decades. We can see trends emerge over time,” Yin said.
Yin, who sits on the Social Services Committee, said they use the data in order to inform how they make policy decisions.
“We are missing that data,” said Yin.
Yin referred to people who ignored middle school and high school age students engaging in sexual behavior as “squeamish.”
“[Sexual intercourse] is happening to a lot of kids in Wyoming and across the nation and we are pretending it doesn’t exist,” he said.
The alternative that Brown suggested is having a private company create a survey for Wyoming and analyze the data in place of the CDC.
“I know the University outsources that all the time, due to lack of trust concerning administration, but both public and private have their bias,” Brady said. “I trust the CDC; they seem like a pretty credible organization.”
For the time being, Wyoming will not join the rest of the majority of states in their participation in the survey. For now, the social services committee will be unaware of the behaviors Wyoming teens are participating in, and no data to inform the state of how youth spend their time.
