Data Catalog

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors six categories of health-related behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and adults, including behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence; sexual behaviors related to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection; alcohol and other drug use; tobacco use; unhealthy dietary behaviors; and inadequate physical activity. YRBSS also measures the prevalence of obesity and asthma and other health-related behaviors plus sexual identity and sex of sexual contacts. YRBSS includes a national school-based survey conducted by CDC and state, territorial, tribal, and local surveys conducted by state, territorial, and local education and health agencies and tribal governments.

This paper extends Brock and Durlauf’s (2001a, 2001b) binary choice complete network (or group interaction) model with homogeneous rational expectations to a general network model with heterogeneous rational expectations. In our model, individuals will form expectations regarding peers’ behaviors taking into account their characteristics. Endogenous, contextual, and correlated effects are all identifiable. This particular study focuses on adolescent smoking behaviors.