2.4. Statistical Analysis
Statistical analyses were conducted using the R studio software (R version 4.4.1: 2024-06-14, (RStudio Team, 2024)). The at-risk and control groups were matched on sex and age using the MatchIt package and these were compared using the chi-square and Mann-Whitney U test, respectively, to confirm the matching procedure and compare the trauma sub-groups (Ho et al., 2011) .
Two statistical tests were conducted to compare depression, mania, SAD, and GAD symptomatology between the at-risk and control groups, and between the trauma and no-trauma subgroups. First, a Mann-Whitney U test assessed differences in the number of symptoms experienced across the various syndromes. This test was chosen for its ability to handle non-normally distributed data. Second, a chi-square test was conducted to determine if there was a significant difference in the proportion of children experiencing at least one symptom across the syndromes, depending on their group classification. These analyses were performed at both baseline and at a two-year follow-up.