Planet Youth website launched – All you need to know about growing up in the west

Planet Youth is an international evidence-based primary prevention model that has been developed in order to reduce substance use rates amongst adolescents.It works by directly targeting the risk and protective factors in young people’s lives that determine their substance use behaviours and enhancing the social environment they are growing up in.The model is underpinned by the data derived from the administration of the Planet Youth questionnaire.This comprehensive lifestyle questionnaire is administered to the 15-16-year-olds in the target community and it examines a great many aspects of their lives. There are questions on their substance use, health, mental health, physical activity, family and school experience, internet use, bullying and so on. The data returned from the survey is used to inform the development of suitable interventions in the community that will help address the known risk and protective for young people and thus improve outcomes. There will be further Planet Youth surveys in 2020 and in 2022.