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Article History

Received: 5 September 2024

Accepted: 27 June 2025

First Online: 2 August 2025

Declarations

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: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Prince Sultan University (PSU IRB-2023-11-0167). Informed consent was obtained from all participants before data collection, ensuring that they were aware of the study’s purpose, procedures, and their right to withdraw at any time. The research adhered to ethical guidelines and principles, safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of participants throughout the study. For the data collected in Spain and Mexico, we consulted with the relevant regulatory frameworks. In Mexico, based on the Mexican Official Standard NOM-012-SSA3-2012, ethical approval is required for biomedical or health-related research involving clinical interventions or sensitive personal data. As our study was anonymous, non-invasive, and involved no sensitive data, ethical review was not required. In Spain, the data collection was conducted independently by the first author, without the involvement of any Spanish institution. According to Spanish legislation (Ley 14/2007 de Investigación Biomédica), ethical approval is required only for biomedical research involving risk, clinical procedures, or identifiable personal data. Given that the study involved anonymous survey responses from adult university students and posed no risk to participants, it was exempt from formal ethics committee review.

: All participants provided written consent for their data to be published in academic journals. Consent for publication was obtained separately from consent to participate, ensuring that participants were aware of and agreed to the use of their data in scholarly dissemination.

: The authors declare no competing interests.