Education as a protective factor for mental health risks among youth living in highly dangerous regions in Afghanistan

Kovess-Masfety, V.; Frounfelker, R. L.; Keyes, K.; Karam, E.; Sabawoon, Ajmal; Sarwari, Bashir Ahmad; Husky, M.; Kaur, N.; Rousseau, C.

doi:10.1186/s13034-022-00548-w

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health

Table 1 Sample characteristics by geographic region of residence within Afghanistan (%)

From: Education as a protective factor for mental health risks among youth living in highly dangerous regions in Afghanistan

	Total sample	Region of residence within Afghanistan								Between-region comparisons
		Kabul /Central	South	East	South West	West	North	Central Highland	North East	Between-region comparisons
	n = 2,707	n = 322	n = 376	n = 342	n = 404	n = 316	n = 300	n = 310	n = 337	Chi²	p-value
Level of terrorist threat
Low to moderate	32.29	0	59.04	7.02	0	85.76	84.67	33.23	0	3.6e+03	< 0.0001
High	31.55	13.66	40.96	0	100	14.24	0	66.77	0
Very high	36.17	86.34	0	92.98	0	0	15.33	0	100
Environment
Rural	73.29	23.91	93.88	88.01	62.62	72.15	63.33	93.55	86.65	654.962	< 0.0001
Parent characteristics
Gender
Male	26.04	25.47	21.54	33.04	30.45	22.15	17.67	24.84	31.45	35.5390	< 0.0001
Female	73.96	74.53	78.46	66.96	69.55	77.85	82.33	75.16	68.55
Ethnicity
Tajik	26.82	56.21	1.06	2.92	0.99	51.58	44.33	1.00	59.35	3.4e+03	< 0.0001
Pashtun	50.79	27.02	98.94	87.43	95.30	37.97	13.00	19.03	4.15
Hazara	10.64	12.11	.00	.00	3.47	5.38	3.00	67.10	0.30
Uzbek	6.21	0.31	.00	.00	0.25	.00	15.67	.00	35.31
Other	5.54	4.35	.00	9.65	.00	5.06	24.00	3.87	0.89
Education level
Low	76.28	66.15	80.59	80.12	81.68	74.05	77.67	70.32	77.15	38.8313	< 0.0001
Moderate to High	23.72	33.85	19.41	19.88	18.32	25.95	22.33	29.68	22.85
Economic situation
Very poor	6.19	4.09	12.63	11.31	4.98	5.13	4.76	1.32	3.96	232.2526	< 0.0001
Poor	33.85	24.53	32.53	38.39	30.10	35.90	40.48	31.35	38.72
Middle income level	55.65	71.38	45.97	48.81	52.74	58.65	54.76	60.40	55.49
Rich/very rich	4.32	0	8.87	1.49	12.19	0.32	0	6.93	1.83
Index child characteristics
Gender
Male	53.16	49.07	58.51	62.57	55.69	48.42	45.67	49.68	52.82	30.8438	< 0.0001
Female	46.84	50.93	41.49	37.43	44.31	51.58	54.33	50.32	47.18
Age
7–9 years	42.87	41.61	45.99	51.91	39.36	38.85	40.47	47.42	37.39	38.0463	0.001
10–12 years	39.76	38.82	37.43	37.54	38.37	44.27	39.80	39.03	43.62
13–14 years	17.36	19.57	16.58	10.56	22.28	16.88	19.73	13.55	18.99
School attendence rate (both genders)
No	21.91	8.07	21.54	25.44	39.85	20.25	19.67	19.35	16.32	123.2934	< 0.0001
Yes	78.09	91.93	78.46	74.56	60.15	79.75	80.33	80.65	83.68
School attendence rate for girls	70.58	88.41	61.54	54.69	50.84	74.23	79.14	71.15	83.02	99.1110	< 0.0001
Number of people in the household	9.51	8.26	13.50	12.47	10.23	7.46	7.69	8.45	7.89	131.16	< 0.0001
Number of household respondent’s children who are alive	5.39	5.11	6.37	6.20	5.64	5.10	4.86	4.91	4.94	25.71	< 0.0001

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ISSN: 1753-2000

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