Spanish-language YTS questionnaires – 10/25/11

Q: We are working with a contractor for administering the 2011 Youth Tobacco Survey (YTS). We’ve had a request from a school district with many Hispanic students where English is their second language if the material can be in Spanish. We have checked with CDC and they do not have a Spanish version. Are any states aware if a Spanish version of both parental consent forms and the actual YTS questionnaires exist and are being used by other states? If you have any Spanish-language YTS materials on hand, please share them.

A:

1. CDC Office on Smoking and Health: We did have a Spanish version of the YTS prior to the 2011 update. As of now, the new YTS questionnaire is not translated. So, the documents that states are sharing in response to this request should not be used, as they are of the old survey.
    
   The updated YTS will be translated into Spanish and ready for the states to use toward the end of 2011. We will not cognitively test it as the Spanish varies by the population served (Mexico versus Ecuador versus Guatemala etc), so states will be responsible for fine-tuning the Spanish to their particular population and also for the cognitive testing of it. The Spanish-language version will be distributed to states once translation is complete.
    
2. Alabama: Alabama does not use Spanish language materials for the YTS.
    
3. California: Attached are California’s Spanish language version of the California Student Tobacco Survey and active and passive consent forms. Click here to download these materials.
    
4. Oklahoma: Oklahoma does not have the survey in Spanish but our consent form is translated into Spanish. We do a double-sided consent form with English on one side and Spanish on the other. Even though the students may be able to read and complete the survey in English, their parents may not be able to read or at least fully understand what they are consenting to if the consent form is English. Even when the parents do not had good literacy skills, their child or someone else is directly reading what is on the paper rather than translating. Click here to view the English version of the consent form, or click here to view the Spanish version.
    
   We have not had the request in a number of years but we have had a survey administrator who was bilingual read the items in Spanish to the entire class but the survey the students have in front of them was in English. This was three classes out of classes at over 200 schools. The survey administrator translated the survey and then our agency translator reviewed it for accuracy. Since that survey administration our experience has been that most ESL students may need additional time but they are able to read and complete the English survey. The students who are not able to read and complete the English language survey usually cannot read and complete a Spanish version because of low literacy skills.
    
5. New Hampshire: Not applicable for New Hampshire.
    
6. Puerto Rico: See attached for the 2003 YTS questionnaire.
    
7. Utah: We no longer do the YTS in Utah, but we did use a Spanish version in 2005. See attached.
    
8. West Virginia: We have not developed Spanish versions of both parental consent forms and the actual YTS questionnaires here in West Virginia.

Editor’s note: Please remember the recommendation from CDC that states should NOT use the old YTS materials verbatim. The responses to this request have been archived for informational purposes only.

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