Youth Crime Before and After the Beginning of COVID-19: A Survey of Middle and High School Students in the

Youth Crime Before and After the Beginning of COVID-19: A Survey of Middle and High School Students in the United States Methodology The analysis, entitled, Youth Crime Before and After the Onset of COVID-19: Evidence from 8th, 10th, and 12th Grade Students in the United States, examines the effect of the first year of the pandemic on youth crime by comparing self-reported non-lethal criminal acti. [...] Interview Schedule and Recall Period (Shaded) for Self-Reported Criminal Behavior in the MTF The survey procedures applied in the MTF before and after spring 2020 were very similar, with the exception that, because many school-aged youth attended school remotely during the 2020-2021 school year, the MTF introduced a web-based version of the survey to collect data from the 2021 cohort. [...] The first item is a three-item scale of the frequency of respondent’s alcohol consumption, including the number of occasions “they had more than a few sips of alcoholic beverages in the past twelve months,” they had more than a few sips of alcoholic beverages in the past 30 days,” and “they had 5 or more drinks a single sitting during the last two weeks (alpha=.89). [...] Supplementary analyses of the individual items that represent the frequency of alcohol consumption and cannabis use in the past twelve months were also estimated because these measures of substance use exhibited the greatest change among youth during the first year of the pandemic. [...] The frequency of youth going out with friends decreased by 11%, the frequency of attending parties declined by 22%, the frequency of alcohol consumption dropped by 19%, and the frequency of cannabis use fell by 11%.