Graphs presenting data from a childhood survey conducted by the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2023.
The University of Nevada, Reno, is currently conducting their survey of students in Douglas County schools to gather data for the Youth Risk Behavioral Health Survey.
“Right now they are in the schools doing this survey and the results will be published spring of 2026,” Partnership Douglas County Executive Director Daria Singer said.
She shared the results of the 2023 survey with members of the Board of Health on Friday.
She said 661 students from Douglas High, Carson Valley and Pau-Wa-Lu middle schools participated in the survey.
“The surveyors pick ‘random’ classes encompassing all grades and so whoever is there that day is who takes the survey,” she said. “There are no makeup days for kids who are out that day”
Surveyors focus is on students reporting adverse childhood experiences such as emotional, physical or sexual abuse, parental substance use, mental illness or incarceration, witnessing domestic violence or physical neglect.
Of the students surveyed in 2023, 31.6 percent reported four such experiences while 22.1 percent reported none.
Four or more adverse experiences are a major factor in self harm, with 57.2 students reporting suicidal ideation and 26.5 reporting attempting to take their lives.
Adverse experiences also contribute to increasing the amount of drug use with 37.6 percent of students with four or more reporting they used nonmedical prescription pain medication during their lives. Alcohol is a lot more common across the board with 46.3 percent of students with no adverse experiences reporting having tried it and 71.8 percent with four or more.
The Partnership is hosting a Family Night on April 14 at the Douglas County Community & Senior Center in Gardnerville.
Survey results support the value of family communication and school connection with positive childhood experiences.
In families where students reported high levels of communication, suicide ideation drops to 17 percent, while suicide attempts are down to 5.3 percent. School connectedness also results in lower numbers, with 7.3 percent of students with a connection to their school reporting attempting suicide.
Douglas law enforcement and school officials recently revealed that a few of the vape devices confiscated from students contained fentanyl and Ecstasy.
Visit www.pdcnv.org for more information about Partnership.