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Article History

Received: 1 October 2024

Accepted: 12 February 2026

First Online: 19 February 2026

Declarations

:

: The HBSC study adhered to ethical guidelines in line with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ensuring that children have the right to express their views on matters that concern them. This includes informed consent from both the children and their parent/s or guardian/s. The survey complied with regulations governing research involving human subjects, as outlined by the formal research review board, The Data protection Authority in Iceland [ ]. Additionally, school authorities and the principals of the participating schools approved the study. The survey was anonymous, and its purpose was explained to all participating children. It was made clear to them that participation was voluntary and those who chose to participate could skip questions they did not want to answer. School management informed parents and guardians of the content and purpose of the survey in advance and that they were free to remove their children from the study without consequence.As the current study utilized anonymized secondary data from the 2014 Icelandic contribution to the HBSC survey and there was no further data collection for the analysis, the current study did not require additional ethical approval in accordance with the Data Protection Authority in Iceland [ ]. Additionally, according to the Data Protection Authority in Iceland [ ], additional consent from participants was not necessary to conduct analysis on previously collected, anonymized data.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.