A state health survey of students in Rhode Island high schools and middle schools shows that some risky behavior has declined or remained consistent over the last decade, but that others, such as drug and alcohol use, are beginning as early as sixth grade.

The 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey released yesterday by the state Department of Health offers a snapshot of the anxieties, risks, and also precautions youths are taking. The survey covers questions on sexual behavior, drug and alcohol use, violence, emotional and physical health. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases the national data for 2007 today.)

There’s good news: more are wearing bicycle helmets and seatbelts than reported in a 1997 survey; fewer are riding with drivers who’ve been drinking or drinking alcohol themselves; and fewer were getting into physical fights.

There’s troubling news: more students said they’d been victims of dating violence or forced to have sex since the 2005 survey; more high schoolers reported having asthma; fewer were eating healthy and slightly more were overweight.

What hasn’t changed in 10 years: nearly half of all high school students say they’ve had sex, and a third said they’d had sex during the past three months; 66 percent say they’ve used condoms (compared with 52 percent in a 1997 survey). Nearly a quarter of respondents reported feeling sad, and 9 percent said they’d attempted suicide, just as teenagers reported in 1997.

There were 2,942 students from 22 high schools and 2,819 students from 24 middle schools in Rhode Island who were randomly selected and reported anonymously in spring 2007. The survey can give health providers, educators and parents a view into the lives of teenagers and whether prevention programs are working. (To view the report: www.health.state.ri.us/chic/statistics/yrbs.php)

“Twenty years ago, we tended to address these as behavior by behavior,” said Dr. David R. Gifford, director of the state Department of Health. Now, he said, the trends found in the survey are examined for what they say about the whole well-being of youths.

Dr. Marjorie Nasin, a pediatrician at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, Pawtucket, saw trends in depression and violence. Twenty-six percent of high school students reported getting into fights, while one in five middle-schoolers said they’d carried a weapon, and nearly half reported getting into a physical fight.

She saw the effects of easy technology –– youths who commonly communicate through texting and e-mail, instead of face-to-face. (Over a quarter of students in high school and nearly a quarter of middle school students reported playing video games or using the computer for other than schoolwork three or more hours a day.) “It’s having a detrimental effect on social skills and problem-solving face-to-face,” Nasin said. Parents need to question whether the technology their children rely upon helps or hurts them, she said. Preventing risky behavior has to start at the middle-school level, she said.

This was the first time in the survey’s 11 years that middle-school students were included, although they were not asked questions about experiencing sad feelings or attempting suicide, or about sexual behavior. The data showed that “a lot of behaviors are starting a lot earlier than we thought,” said Gifford.

For example, at the middle schools, 15 percent of students said they were current drinkers, and 28 percent had drunk alcohol. The proportion of alcohol and drug use increased with age, as 13 percent of sixth graders and 41 percent of eighth graders admitted drinking alcohol. At the high school level, 43 percent of high school students said they were drinking alcohol (it was 52 percent in 1997), and 23 percent said they smoked marijuana (29 percent in 1997).

“You need to talk to your children about these issues,” Gifford said, “because they’re out there talking amongst themselves. And doing more than talking.”

amilkovi@projo.com