STATISTICS

STATISTICS

2020 Statistics Report

Scituate High School, Gates Middle School, Massachusetts & United States
Includes substance youth trends among Scituate youth from 2012-2020

2021 Scituate Parent Caregiver Survey on Youth Substance Use

During the spring of 2021, an online survey was administered among Scituate and SPS caregivers of 6-12 grade students. Questions were developed by a team to ask about:

  • Attitudes and Perceptions

  • Parent-Child Communications

  • Prevention/Intervention Strategies

  • Needs for Support

Here are just a few highlights from the anonymous survey -

  • Parents underestimate their own teens’ use. They are most likely to underestimate their child vaping nicotine, followed by using cannabis, and then using alcohol.

  • While rates of substance use are far lower in middle school than high school, no respondents with middle school age youth believed their children used any substances.

One thing is clear: there is more we can do to support families of teenagers. 100% of Middle School parents (and 91.2% of HS parents) want other parents to call/text them to check for supervision. Yet only 37.7% of MS parents (and 29.7% of HS parents) most of the time/always do this. Would you be willing to meet to review the results? We want to discuss the takeaways in more detail with local parents and caregivers of 12-25 year old children (even if you did not complete the survey). We would also like to engage with marketing and communication professionals as we turn some of what we learned into helpful messaging. Think social media campaign, bite-sized parenting tips and videos!

Please add your name here to be invited to a kick-off this fall.