Can Popular Youth Music and Media Be a Culturally-Informative Approach to Address Health Education, Media Literacy and Diversity in Schools?

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2011) monitors six health concerns that are linked to risk behaviors through the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) administered to school age youth (Frieden, Jaffe, Cono, Richards & Iademarco, 2014). Four of these six behaviors contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and are addressed specifically in this manuscript. They are:a) behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence; b) sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV; c) alcohol and other drug use; and d) tobacco use(Behavioral Health Barometer, South Carolina, 2013).