School Connectedness and Risk Behaviors and Experiences Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2021

Abstract

School connectedness, defined as students' belief that adults and peers in their school care about their learning as well as about them as persons, has been linked to positive educational, behavioral, and health outcomes in adolescence and into adulthood. Data from the 2021 nationally representative Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, were used to estimate prevalence of students' perception of school connectedness and examine associations between school connectedness and seven risk behaviors and experiences: poor mental health, marijuana use, prescription opioid misuse, sexual intercourse, unprotected sex, experiencing forced sex, and missing school because of feeling unsafe. Prevalence estimates were generated and pairwise t-tests were used to detect differences among student subpopulations by sex, grade, race and ethnicity, and sexual identity; Wald chi-square tests were used to detect differences in risk behaviors by level of connectedness within a subpopulation. Logistic regression models were used to estimate prevalence ratios comparing the prevalence of risk behaviors and experiences of students with high connectedness with students with low connectedness, stratified by demographics. During 2021, 61.5% of U.S. high school students reported feeling connected to others at school. In addition, school connectedness was associated with lower prevalence of every risk behavior and experience examined in this study, although certain associations differed by race and ethnicity and sexual identity (e.g., school connectedness was associated with better mental health outcomes for youths with heterosexual, bisexual, and questioning or other sexual identities, but not for youths who identified as lesbian or gay). These findings can guide public health interventions that promote youth well-being by creating school environments where all youths have a sense of belonging and feel they are cared for and supported.