Table 1. Variables and their categories used in the analysis, as captured in the Global School-based Student Health Survey, apart from country-level factors, which are extracted from the World Bank World Development Indicators database and use World Bank classification.
| Country-level factors | Individual-level factors | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographic factors | Indicators of psychosocial circumstances | Aggressive behaviour indicators | ||||
| Markers of risky behaviour | Contextual factors | Protective factors | Indicators of poor mental health | |||
| Income status | Age | Number of days smoked in the past 30 days | Went hungry in the past 30 days | Number of close friends | Considered or planned suicide in the past 12 months * | Number of times in a physical fight in the past 12 months |
| High | ≤13 years | Never (0 days) | Never | 0 | No | 0 times |
| Upper middle | 14 or 15 years | Rarely (1 or 2/3–5 days) | Rarely | 1 | Yes | 1 time |
| Lower middle | ≥16 years | Often (6–9/10–19/20–29 days) | Sometimes | 2 | Attempted suicide in the past 12 months | 2 to 3 times |
| Low | Sex | Always (all 30 days) | Most of the time/always | 3 or more | No | ≥4 times |
| World region | Male | Number of days of alcohol use in the past 30 days | Number of days bullied in the past 30 days | Parents or guardians understand problems and worries in the past 30 days | Yes | How many times got into fights as result of alcohol during your lifetime |
| East Asia and the Pacific | Female | Never (0 days) | Never (0 days) | Never | Too worried to sleep in the past 12 months | 0 times |
| South Asia | Rarely (1 or 2/3–5 days) | Rarely (1 or 2/3–5 days) | Rarely | Never | 1 to 2 times | |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | Often (6–9/10–19/20–29 days) | Often (6–9/10–19/20–29 days) | Sometimes | Rarely | ≥3 times | |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Always (all 30 days) | Always (all 30 days) | Most of the time/always | Sometimes | Number of times physically attacked in the past 12 months | |
| Ever used drugs | Felt lonely in the past 12 months | Most of the time/always | 0 times | |||
| No | Never | 1 time | ||||
| Yes | Rarely | 2 to 3 times | ||||
| Physical activity in the past 7 days | Sometimes | ≥4 | ||||
| 0 days | Most of the time/always | |||||
| 1 day | ||||||
| 2 days | ||||||
| ≥3 days | ||||||
Variable names are presented as shown in the results; the responses that informed each variable are presented in Table A in S1 Text. The original questions are available from https://www.cdc.gov/GSHS/ and https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/surveillance/systems-tools/global-school-based-student-health-survey).
*This variable was formed from 2 survey questions relating to considering/planning suicide (see Table A in S1 Text); a positive response to either question was deemed as being a positive result for this variable.