Table 1.

Description of study characteristics and quality appraisal

Authors (year of publication)	Origin of sample	Group comparisons	N	Age range	% Male	Ethnic and racial distribution of sample
Child-only sample (6–12 years old)
Granell de Aldaz, et al. (1987) [47]	Venezuela	1: SR	57	3–13a	44	–
		2: No SR	57	3–13a	47
Adolescent-only sample (13–17 years old)
Adams (1997)* [50]	USA	1: SR	35	13–16	57	–
		2: No SR	35		80
Carless, et al. (2015) [16]	Australia	1: SR	60	12b–17	53	97% Caucasian 3% Asian
		2: No SR	46	12b–17	39
Ficula, et al. (1983)** [54]	USA	1: SRc	11	14–17	45.4	–
		2: SAP not SR	11		81.8
		3: No SR or SAP	19		47.3
Place, et al. (2002) [63]	USA	1: SR	17	12b–15	65	–
		2: No SR	643	–	–
Child and adolescent samples (6–17 years old) or not specified
Bahali, et al. (2011) [48]	Turkey	1: SR (hospitalised)	55	–	–	–
		2: No SR	56	–	–	–
Cooper (1984) [72]	UK	1: SRc	22	11–16	–	–
		2: T	45
		3: No SAPc	84
Egger, et al. (2003) [4]	USA	1: SRc	165	9–16	47.9	69.9% Caucasian 22.4% Native American 6% African American 0.5% Hispanic 0.2% Asian 1.1% Other
		2: T	517	9–16	65.1
		3: Mixte (SR and T)	35	9–16	51.9
		4: No SAPc	705	9–16	–
Foreman, et al. (1997) [73]	UK	1: SR (hospitalised)	20	11–15	50	–
		2: No SR	20	11–15	45
Havik, et al. (2015) [5]	Norvegia	1: SR	3629	11–12	49.6	–
		2: T		13–15
Honjo, et al. (2001) [49]	Japan	1: SRc	34	7–17	68	–
		2: SR + Depression	10	7–17	50
		3: No SR or Depressionc	243	12–15	46
Hughes, et al. (2010) [74]	Australia	1: SR	21	10–14	52	–
		2: No SR	21	10–14	52
Maric, et al. (2012) [17]	Netherlands	1: SR	50	11–17	58	92% Dutch 2% Turkish 6% Other
		2: No SR	181	11–17	55	88% Dutch 3% Surinamese 2% Turkish 1% Moroccan 5% Other
Naylor, et al. (1994) [75]	USA	1: SR (hospitalised)	27	12–16	37	–
		2: No SR	27	12–16	37
Tomoda, et al. (1997) [76]	Japan	1: SR	22	12–18	45	–
		2: No SR	9	10–21	39

Group comparisons: SR school refusal; T truancy; SAP school attendance problem; – not specified

*Thesis; **Published Conference Proceeding

^aIn Venezuela, schooling begins at 4 years

^bThe authors specify that all participants are in high school

^cWhen more than 3 groups were compared in a study, the identified factors concerned the comparison between the SR group and the group without SR