Youth Survey

The Youth Survey is a yearly survey conducted by CACTC to measure the behaviors of the Cortland County students. Information on behaviors ranges from substance use, mental health, and other risk and protective factors.


Uses for the Survey: 

Since 2002, CACTC has surveyed 7th-12th grade students in Cortland County about substance use behaviors and risk and protective factors that predict adolescent problem behaviors using the validated survey tool: New York State PFS Youth Survey.


Since 2019, each school district in the county has participated in the survey with 1,800-2,000 students participating each year. Surveys are checked for validity and reliability prior to being included in the yearly sample received by CACTC.


CACTC uses the Youth Survey data to evaluate impact. The data is also useful for partners who want information on school-aged youth to write grants, strategies, or interventions. The Youth Survey data has been used in the development of the Cortland County CHA/CHIP with the Department of Health, as well as other community agencies. CACTC has also built out dashboards for each participating school to be able to review their own individual data. The data has also been used to create media messaging for social norming and marketing campaigns. 


The trained Epidemiologists of CACTC are able to pull off further data from the reports for a more specific analysis of the population. The behavioral data can be combined with different demographic variable such as:


CACTC Youth Survey Data Reports