Exploring MEST: a new universal teaching strategy for school health services to promote positive mental health literacy and mental wellbeing among Norwegian adolescents

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the baseline (T1) cohort and distribution of the MEST and non-MEST participants

	Entire Cohort		MEST Participants		Non-MEST Participants
	N	Percent (%)	N	Percent (%)	N	Percent (%)
	357		109		248
Gender^a
Female	188	53	78	72	110	44
Male	166	46	30	27	136	55
Missing	3	< 0.1	1	< 0.1	2	< 0.1
Age (years)
15	2	< 0.1	–	–	2	< 0.1
16	151	42	44	40	107	43
17	104	29	36	33	68	27
18	72	20	27	25	45	18
19	23	6	1	1	22	9
20	1	< 0.1	1	1	1	< 0.1
21	1	< 0.1	–	–	1	< 0.1
Missing	3	< 0.1	–	–	2	< 0.1
Education
General studies	226	63	63	58	163	66
Vocational studies	128	36	45	41	83	33
Missing	3	< 0.1	1	1	2	< 0.1
Parental education^b
Primary or lower secondary school	19	5	4	4	15	6
Upper secondary school	81	23	26	24	55	22
University up to 4 years	116	32	32	29	84	34
University more than 4 years	83	23	33	30	50	20
Unknown	47	13	12	11	35	14
Missing	11	3	2	2	9	4
Family finances^c
Good	268	75	82	75	181	73
Neither good nor bad	64	18	22	20	51	21
Bad	19	5	2	2	13	5
Missing	6	2	3	3	3	1
Parents live together
Yes	230	64	67	61	162	65
No	124	35	41	38	84	34
Missing	3	1	1	1	2	< 0.1
Born in Norway
Yes	336	94	104	95	232	94
No	16	4	3	3	13	5
Missing	5	1	2	2	3	1

^aSignificant difference between MEST and non-MEST participants
^b Student report of parents’ highest education. Assessed by asking about each parent; the mean score of the mother and father is presented
^c Student perception of family finances

ISSN: 1472-6963