3.1.4. Analytical Strategy

Quantitative data from surveys were introduced using tablets and *Qualtrics* for importing the data of the online questionnaire to SPSS format. The quantitative analysis was carried out with the SPSS Statistical Package. We used repeated measures factorial ANOVAs with participation in the programme (mentoring vs. control group) introduced as a between-subject factor, the measurement time (Time 1 vs. Time 2) introduced as a within-subject factor, and the interaction term between participation in the programme and the measurement time. A significant interaction effect would mean that the change over time is stronger/weaker in one group compared to the other, and thus that the significant change in the mentoring group is due to participation in the programme and not due to other external factors (such as simply longer time of residence in the host country). We additionally ran paired *t* tests to examine the effectiveness of the programme in the

mentoring group and the control group separately in increasing/reducing (i.e., from Time 1 to Time 2) participants' psychological distress, self-esteem, resilience, and hope.

We also applied the McNemar test to examine changes in educational aspirations and expectations. The McNemar test is used to determine if a statistically significant change in proportions has occurred on a dichotomous variable at two time points in the same population. Thus, in the present study, this test allowed us to determine the proportion of participants who had low levels of educational aspirations/expectations (a binary variable) before participation in the programme (Time 1), and who changed them to high levels of educational aspirations/expectations after the mentoring intervention (Time 2), and whether this change was statistically significant. In parallel, we tested what proportion of participants in the control group who had low levels of educational aspirations/expectations at Time 1 changed them to high levels of educational aspirations/expectations at Time 2, expecting that there would be no statistically significant change in this group. We required *p* < 0.05 as a minimal level of statistical significance.
