ARC Associates

Applied Research Consulting Services

ARC Associates
11 Turnberry Dr
Slingerlands, NY 12159
ph: 518-526-5953 fax: 866-274-2280
Bob.Gallati@ARC-Associates.net

CCYS rev. 2/16/13

Caring Communities Youth Survey (CCYS) (revised January 2020)

The Caring Communities Youth Survey (CCYS) is a paper-and-pencil questionnaire administered biennially to 6^th, 8^th, 10^th grade students in the fall of even numbered years. It is based on the Communities That Care (CTN) model developed for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) which measures risk and protective factors, behaviors and consequences. Thus the CCYS is explicitly designed to support planning, implementation and evaluation of prevention programming at the state, community and school levels. While it is especially designed for substance abuse prevention, and is consistent with SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF), the CCYS includes other elements, such as indicators of violence, bullying, depressions and suicide risk as well as substance use and mental health treatment need, many of which are required for funding from various federal and private foundation sources. The CCYS is especially useful for school-based programming, but is very useful for community-based programming as well because it represents the middle and high school students and presents their perspective of community. The CCYS is typically conducted in the fall of the school year so that reports can be delivered back to the school districts in the spring semester to support planning for the next school year. Louisiana has conducted CCYS surveys on a regular two-year cycle. The most current reports include data for 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018.

School surveys consistently provide higher estimates, often twice as high, on substance use-related indicators among adolescents in comparison to household surveys such as the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). While NSDUH provides a national standard, employs state-of-the-art methodologies, and should be highly reliable, there is reason to believe it systematically under estimates substance use-related indicators among adolescents ages 12-17.

Documentation and Reports

2018