The New Brunswick Student Wellness Survey (NBSWS) began in 2006-2007 for grades 6-12 students, and was repeated in 2009-2010, 2012-2013 and 2015-2016. Part of the NB Wellness Strategy, NBSWS is a provincial initiative of the Department of Social Development’s Wellness Branch, in co-operation with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Data collection, data analysis and knowledge transfer is led by the New Brunswick Health Council (NBHC). The purpose of the survey is to examine the health and wellness attitudes and behaviours of students. Students will be asked questions about their wellness behaviours such as their eating habits, physical activity, bullying, tobacco use, and how connected they feel to their school. Students in grades 7-12 will also be asked questions on sex, alcohol and drug use.

This year, the survey coincides with the Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CSTADS). CSTADS is a national survey sponsored by Health Canada and administered every two years to students in grades 7 to 12 in participating provinces. To minimize the impact of surveys for students, the CSTADS will be incorporated into the NBSWS. This means that 1 out of every 9 students between grades 7 and 12 will be randomly selected to complete the CSTADS instead of the NBSWS.

By taking the time to complete this survey, students can contribute to their school’s improvement plans and student wellness activities. On Monday, March 18th, 2019, our school will be participating in this survey, as we aim to improve the health and wellness of children in our community. If you would like more information on this survey, please call the New Brunswick Health Council at 1-877-225-2521 or visit their website at www.nbhc.ca. For more information on the CSTADS, please visit their website at www.cstads.ca.

Participation by students at the time of survey administration will be voluntary and anonymous. The student’s name or identification number will not appear on the completed questionnaire. All student answers will be grouped together when results are reported, which means that information is never released in a manner that could be used to disclose a student’s identity.

For the NBSWS, survey results will only be reported at the school, district or provincial level, or by group such as grade or sex. A database containing all student responses will be stored at the NBHC. This database will have identifiers such as age, sex, school and grade. There will be no student name, address or identification number in this database. Only a select number of NBHC staff will have access to this database. Questionnaires will be destroyed one year after the completion of the survey year, and the database will be held indefinitely for trending purposes.

For the CSTADS, national and provincial results will be reported by group (e.g., grade, sex, province), similar to the reporting of CSTADS 2016/2017 (https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canadian-student-tobacco...). Questionnaires will be destroyed two years after the completion of the survey year. Data with identifiers such as student age and school postal code will be stored at University of Waterloo and only university research staff will have access to it. Anonymized data will be accessible to federal and provincial governments and researchers across Canada. This data may be held indefinitely.

Prior to the date of the survey, parents who do not want their child to participate can call the New Brunswick Health Council at 1-877-225-2521 and must provide the school name, student name, home room teacher’s name and grade.