NM Youth Risk & Resiliency Survey (NM-YRRS)

How is the NM-YRRS administered?

The NM-YRRS is administered in the fall of odd years.  Students in selected classrooms in participating schools take the survey in a class that the school designates.  Schools can choose whether to take a web-based survey or a pencil-and-paper version.  The survey is available in Spanish or English, and it takes less than half an hour to complete.  

Participating in the survey is voluntary.  Parents (or guardians) or students may elect not to take the survey.  Teachers will send a form home with students about a week before the survey administration date.  If parents do not want your child to take the survey, they can complete the form and return it to their child’s teacher.  If parents would like your child to take the survey, they do not need to return the form.

The survey is anonymous, meaning that there is no way to link a response to an individual student.  The NM-YRRS adheres to the highest standards of the ethical protection of human subjects’ rights, and the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center’s Institutional Review Board regularly reviews NM-YRRS procedures to ensure participants’ privacy and confidentiality.

In some schools, all classrooms participate, and in others, only a sample of classrooms completes the survey.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) selects schools to participate in the survey such that the group of participating schools is similar to all of the schools in the state. 

The CDC sample plan also designates the number of classrooms in each school that need to participate, and these classrooms are selected randomly.  The group of schools that the CDC selects for the NM-YRRS is called the “CDC sample.”  Albuquerque Public Schools, the NM Department of Health, and the NM Public Education select additional schools for participation based on the schools’ participation in special projects or the need to include larger numbers of students for sub-group analysis, such as rural schools.  For more information about the sample design, contact yrrs@youthrisk.org.  


Data Request

This form is to be used to request a copy of a New Mexico YRRS dataset. The form requires:
  1. a description of the analysis to be carried out and of the manner in which the results will be reported, and
  2. a digital signature from the data user making the request agreeing to specific data use and reporting restrictions.
Data use and reporting restrictions
  • Data users cannot redistribute the dataset to other users. All potential users of the dataset must complete a dataset request form and return it to the Epidemiology and Response Division (ERD), NM Department of Health.
  • Sub-county analysis and reporting can be conducted only with express permission of the appropriate school district superintendent. A form requesting this permission from the school district superintendents is available from Dan Green, ERD, NM DOH (contact information below).
  • Data analysis must be conducted using weights (see codebook) with a software program (i.e., STATA or SUDAAN) that can take into account the complex survey design.


School District Data Release Request

This information release form is to be used by school district superintendents to request that school district level results from the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey be released for use at the local level for the purposes of prevention and health promotion efforts.

Click here to download Data Release Request form.

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