Interrelatedness of Community Indicators of Youth and Family Problems

This collection of fifteen analytical maps and supporting information published in 2008 focuses on community variation in youth and family problems across Washington state. The problem indicators included child and women injury, infant mortality and low birth weight, child abuse, teen suicide, births to adolescent mothers, deaths due to substance use disorder (SUD), and youth receiving state-funded SUD services. We identified (1) the communities and neighborhoods with high and low concentrations of the youth and family problems, (2) the areas where some, but not other types of problems manifested themselves, as shown by maps of factor scores produced by the principal component analysis, and (3) the areas where multiple severe problems overlapped, as shown by problem severity index we computed. Some areas with high severity index were not among the communities with the highest rates of DSHS clients, and vice-versa.