In collaboration with the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY) and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), MDR has conducted several administrations of the Virginia Youth Survey (VYS). This biennial survey provides critical insights into the health behaviors of middle and high school students across Virginia, informing statewide efforts to prevent chronic conditions and promote youth wellness. The 2023 VYS continued a long-standing partnership between MDR, VFHY, and VDH, building on previous survey cycles from 2015 through 2021.
The 2023 VYS was administered to 6,327 students (3,500 high school and 2,827 middle school students) from 78 public schools across Virginia. The school response rate reached 99%, with a student response rate of 81%, resulting in an overall response rate of 80%. The survey was conducted using a hybrid approach, offering both online and paper formats to accommodate school preferences and ensure broad participation. MDR programmed and tested the online survey in Qualtrics, integrating individual student ID tracking to prevent duplicate responses. For schools opting for paper administration, MDR designed and printed English and Spanish survey booklets, coordinated distribution with VDH, and managed high-speed scanning of returned surveys.
A unique feature of the 2023 VYS was the inclusion of Rescue Agency’s Virginia Mindset Lens Survey (VMLS), a proprietary tool used to segment youth into peer crowds based on shared values, interests, and cultural affiliations. This segmentation enabled VFHY to tailor health messaging to resonate with specific youth subcultures such as Hip Hop, Country, Alternative, Popular, and Mainstream. MDR merged peer crowd data with the cleaned and weighted VYS dataset, calculated peer crowd scores, and conducted detailed analysis by peer crowd groupings. The final deliverables included a comprehensive data compendium with frequencies, confidence intervals, and significance testing for all survey questions segmented by peer crowd and region.
The results provide VFHY and VDH with actionable data to guide future health campaigns and track behavioral trends among Virginia’s youth.
