Life skills intervention at high school: A needed pedagogic shift
Introduction of the project
Adolescent boys and girls face many changes and challenges during these important
growing up years. This is also the age when their personalities are being shaped along
with development of personal and social skills. It is important to equip the adolescents
with the necessary skills to adopt these changes and deal effectively with the demands
and challenges of everyday life. So this project was planned and implemented for
imparting life skill education to the less reached tribal adolescents.
Adolescence: An important phase of life
Adolescence is the span of years between childhood and adulthood. The term
adolescence comes from the Latin word adolescere, meaning ‘to grow’ or ’to grow to
maturity.’ It is customary to regard adolescence as beginning when children become
sexually mature and ending when they reach the age of legal maturity. Adolescence is
often described as a phase of life that begins in biology and ends in society. However,
studies of changes in behavior, attitudes and values throughout adolescence have revealed
not only that these changes are more rapid in the early than in the latter part of
adolescence but also that the behavior, attitudes and values in the early part of the period
are markedly different from those in the later part.
During, this time a number of physical, cognitive and social emotional changes take place
in the body.
Tribal development in India
“A tribe is a segmental organization. It is composed of a number of equivalent,
unspecialized multifamily groups, each the structural duplicate of the other: a tribe is a
congregate of equal kin group blocs” (Sukant & Surendra, 2008)
In India, the tribal form a significant section of the population mainly because of two
factors:
They constitute 8.14% of the total population numbering 8, 45, 11,216 persons (2001
Census)
They have distinct cultures, dialects and economic pursuits in different ecological
settings.
Therefore, it becomes extremely important to prepare the individual at younger stage to
face these changes and mature into a person prepared to face the challenges of adult life.
They need abilities-skills to face the demands of everyday life. Life skills equip
adolescents in facing these changes with a positive outlook.
Life Skills and Adolescents’ development
A WHO document (1994) defines life skills as “abilities for adoptive and positive
behavior that enable an individual to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of
everyday life”.
These skills help to develop psychosocial competence and empower young people to
have control over what they do. Decision making, communicating, building self-esteem,
developing relationships, dealing with conflicts, problem solving, coping with stress and
emotions are set of skills which are necessary for the psychosocial wellbeing in children
and adolescents.
The youth of today face many more choices and demands than ever before. Dealing with
academic competition, handling family responsibilities, transcending daily life conflicts,
dealing with peer pressure, preparing for future roles, making crucial carrier choices on
the one hand provide them with greater independence but on the other hand can also lead
to greater conflict and frustration, thus affecting their psychosocial well-being. It is
essential to help the youth acquire enduring self-esteem, inquiring habits of mind, reliable
human relationships, a sense of belonging in a valued group, and a feeling of usefulness.
Adolescents need a basis for making informed, deliberate decisions, especially on matters
that have major consequences, such as educational and occupational futures and human
relations (Hechinger, 1992).
For the youth to enter the community of responsible adults prepared for a diversity of
social roles, they must possess critical thinking and problem solving skills along with
effective coping resources and personal and social competencies. The most direct
interventions for the promotion of psychosocial competence in the young people can be
done by teaching of life skills in a supportive learning environment (WHO, 1994). It will
not only help promote the well-being of the youth, but also contribute to national health
and our future as a nation.
Project rationale and objectives
This project was planned and implemented for imparting life skill education to the tribal
adolescents. The project activities were planned so as to equip the economically
backward tribal adolescents with necessary skills to broaden their horizon, understand
and adopt those the traditional beliefs which are rational and practical and become gender
sensitive so as to be a part of the national development through the building better
society. If the future generation becomes more aware and sensitive, it will better equip
them to stop the ill practices and beliefs prevalent in the tribal society. Through the
project the adolescent themselves will become the agent of change and help build society
and nation of our dreams.
The state and central government has planned and implemented many programs for the
betterment and development of citizens living below poverty line. But not many
programs have been undertaken to make the adolescent aware about their life style; its
effect on individual and society as well as development of nation at large. This project
made an effort to develop an understanding of quality lifestyle amongst the tribal
adolescents.
The objectives of the project were:
i. Make adolescent boys and girls aware of their capacities and further their development.
ii. Evaluate the Impact of the intervention program in select domains
METHODOLOGY
An intervention program adopting participatory method was employed to impart life
skills training to a mixed group of adolescent students. A pre-test and post-test design
was adopted to assess the impact of the life skills intervention program.
Selection of the sample
For the purpose of imparting intervention, two schools located in the tribal populated belt
of Bharuch district were identified with the permission and guidance of the District
Education Officer. Both the schools agreed on implementation of the program with the
adolescent students at the school premises. The program was thus implemented with
adolescent boys and girls of secondary section, in the age group 13-to-15 years. The life
skill program was carried out in both the schools. However, impact evaluation was done
in only one school.
Description of the sample
The sample for the program was a mixed group of 94 students in the age range of 13 to
15 years, studying in VIII and IX standard of two Gujarati medium schools in Bharuch,
which mainly catered to students from low-income settings. 48 students comprising of 30
boys and 18 girls from Shree Rang Navchetan Vidya Mandir, Valiya and 46 students
comprising of 29 boys and 17 girls of Diwan Dhanjisaheeb Secondary school, Jhagadia
were selected with the help of respective school teachers. All of them were in the age
range of 13-15 years. Informed consent was taken from all the students prior to the
implementation of the program.
Formation of the tool
The tool was developed by the project team and the Principal Investigator, and the coinvestigator of the project, who have expertise in the field of adolescent development
studies. The tool was a self- administered semi-structured questionnaire, comprising of
open-ended as well as close-ended questions. The tool was developed in English
language, and then translated into Gujarati language, for the convenience of the sample
selected.
Data Collection
Data collection for the pre-test was done in August 2008. The students took 1 hour to
complete the self-administered questionnaire. During the pre-testing, the researcher was
present to clarify any doubts that the student may have while responding to the
questionnaire. Prior to the pre-test, an informal session with the students was carried out,
with the purpose of building rapport and introducing the project.
The post-test data was carried out after a week of the last day of intervention program.
The same questionnaire was administered on the students to know any changes in their
knowledge and understanding of the different domains, as a result of the training
program.
The life skills intervention program
The life skills intervention program was conducted between the months of August to
December in 20 sessions. Each session of the program was conducted for one and a half
hours. Each session was activity based and participatory in nature. The major techniques
used to impart information were role-plays, small group activities, and lectures followed
by group discussion.
RESULTS
Impact evaluation of the intervention program
This section includes the result of the pre-post test carried out with the Adolescents of
Valiya as well as the qualitative responses obtained from the participants of the Zagadia
School at Bharuch district,Gujarat,Vadodara,India
Background Information of the sample
The participants of the program were asked to provide their background information
which included details like the type of family, siblings, education and occupation of the
parents and their approximate family income.
Table 1: Background information of the adolescents
category
Range/Type
Total %
Age of the participant
12-13 yrs.
14-16 yrs.
Standard in which they 8th std.
study
9th std.
Type of family
Joint
Nuclear
Number of Brothers
1-2
3-5
Number of Sisters
1-2
3-5
Education of Father
Illiterate
Primary
Secondary
H.Secondary
Graduate &
Other
Education of Mother
Illiterate
Primary
Secondary
H.Secondary
Graduate &
Other
Occupation of Father
labour
*Service
Farmer
Business
Occupation of Mother
House wife
Farmer
34.1
65.9
31.8
68.2
46.6
31.8
55.6
23.8
44.3
2.2
12.5
20.5
22.7
15.9
8.0
22.7
23.9
26.1
3.4
2.3
23.9
31.8
23.9
6.8
84.1
3.4
Labour
2.3
Service
1.1
*Service includes employed with police/ post department, driver, sweeper.
It was encouraging to find that many parents; fathers as well as mothers had received
education till secondary level. Adolescents came from varied economic background;
ranging from low to high income groups.
Changes during adolescence
Adolescents experience many changes, both internal as well as external during early
adolescence. External changes like increase in height and weight and development of
secondary sex characteristics. While internal changes include maturation of various
systems and increased activity of endocrine system. Adolescents were asked if they had
experienced changes in the past few years. All most all (95%) adolescents before the
intervention and majority (87.5%) after the life skills program answered in affirmation.
The responses show that they had experienced changes in all domains of development
namely physical and emotional. Table 2 shows the adolescents responses as regards
changes experienced by them in the past 3-4 years.
Table 2: Changes during adolescence.
Changes experienced in self
Pre
N=40
%
Yes
95.0
Post
N=48
%
87.5
%
90.9
No
12.5
6.8
0
Total
Physical changes
Adolescent were asked if they had experienced any physical changes. A little over two
fifth (42%) in the pre test and little under three fifth in the post test (57%) of adolescents
had experienced changes in their entire body (Table 3). The number of adolescents
mentioning increase in size of different body parts like hands, legs and face reduced to
half after the intervention. This difference in the pre post scores reflect a holistic
understanding of the changes experienced during their growing up years. The number of
adolescents who had experienced cognitive development doubled from pre to post (16%
vs 31%). The intervention program helped them to get a better insight of the changes
going on in their bodies and also able to categorize those changes more appropriately. It
was heartening to find out that adolescents were able to acknowledge and respond
towards this change which is generally not expected from rural –tribal adolescents.
Table 3: Physical changes experienced by the adolescents
Type of physical changes
experienced
Observed change in entire body
Specific body parts increased in
size like hands, legs
Cognitive development
Pre n = 38
Post n = 42
%
42.1
18.4
%
57.1
9.5
Total
N = 80
%
50.0
13.7
15.8
31.0
23.7
Emotional changes
Traditionally, adolescence has been thought of as a period of ‘storm and stresses- a time
of heightened emotional tension resulting from the physical and glandular changes that
are taking place. Adolescent emotions are often intense, uncontrolled and seemingly
irrational. However, with each passing year, there is an improvement in emotional
behavior as they mature.
As seen in figure 1 & 2, about one fourth adolescents both before (26%) as well as after
(24%) the intervention had mentioned experiencing mood upheavals and undergoing
mood swings such as feeling angry, irritated, annoyed and puzzled. There was an increase
in number of adolescents from pre to post who mentioned having become more sensitive
and conscious about good and bad thoughts.
Figure
1:
Emotional
intervention
26%
changes
39%
experienced
by
adolescents
Have becam e m ore
sensitive & conscious
about good and bad
thoughts
Get em otional and feel
insulted, angry, annoyed,
irritated, puzzled, etc
Now feel a sense of
responsibility
16%
26%
Sense of self esteem
before
the
Figure
2:
Emotional
intervention
changes
experienced
3%
by
adolescents
after
the
Have become more sensitive
& conscious about good &
bad thoughts
Get emotional and feel
insulted, angry, annoyed
,irritated,puzzled etc.
Now feel a sense of self
esteem
14%
45%
38%
Now feel a sense of
responsibility
Personality traits of adolescents
The development of the self, identity and emotions in adolescents is linked with
personality. In many views, the self is the central aspect of personality. During
adolescence, through self understanding, individuals develop an integrated sense of
identity. The description of an individual’s personality traits and temperament often
involves emotions. For example, an adolescent may be described in terms of emotional
stability/instability and positive/negative affectivity. Further, it is better to view
personality not only in terms of traits, but also in terms of context and situations
(Mischel.1968, 2004).
In this program also, adolescents were asked to give their opinion whether feelings and
emotions affect our thoughts, relations, behavior, success and failure.
Table 4: Adolescents perception of effect of emotions
Effects of our emotions
Pre n = 40
Post n = 48
Total
N = 88
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
%
%
Emotions affect our thinking
87.5
12.5
Emotions affect our relationships
85.0
15.0
Emotions affect our behavior
57.0
25.0
Emotions affect our success
90.0
10.0
Emotions affect our failure
27.5
72.5
%
93.8
2.1
90.9
6.8
85.4
12.5
85.2
13.6
68.8
29.2
71.6
27.3
85.4
12.5
87.5
11.4
35.4
60.4
31.8
65.9
Table 4 shows that a large number of adolescents believed that our emotions do have an
impact on our thinking (87%) and relationships (85%). The number of adolescents who
agreed that emotions affect thinking increased slightly (94% from 87%) after the
intervention, while there was no change in the pre-post scores for relationships. About
three fourth of the participants also believed that emotions affect our behavior too.
Adolescents also reported that our emotions affect our success as well as our failure,
though their responses represented two extremes. While majority (90%) said that
emotions affect success only a little over one fourth (27%) believed that our failure is
affected by our emotions.
Reaction of adolescents to various situations
As a part of the intervention program, adolescents were given three different situations to
know their inter-personal decision making, emotional maturity and ability to deal with
peer pressure and their responses elicited.
Situation I
Despite of strong wish to go for the school picnic, if you do not get permission from
parents due to certain problems, what would be your reaction?
A positive change noticed was that nearly 15% of adolescents said that they would talk to
their parents to know the reason for their denial instead of just telling no to the teacher
without even asking parents, showing the importance of negotiation and conflict
resolution.(Table.5)
Table 5: Adolescents reaction to parents’ denial to go for school picnic
Reactions
Believe my parents. will respect
their decision whatever they
say/ decide for me
will try to understand economic
condition, will say no to teacher
without even asking parents
Will talk to my parents to find
out the reason for saying NO
and try convincing accordingly
Pre n = 40
Post n = 48
%
77.5
%
66.7
Total
N = 88
%
71.5
40.0
14.6
26.1
0
14.6
7.9
Situation II
You visit a shop along with your friend to purchase something and during the
transaction the shopkeeper gives you extra money (RS. 10) by mistake. Your friend
not only stops you from returning the extra amount but also threatens to stop
talking to you if you return the money. What will you do?
This is a typical situation of peer pressure wherein the friend not only advices to do
wrong but also threatens to break the friendship. A positive change in the response of the
adolescents was seen as a result of the session on how to deal with the peer pressure.
Table 6 shows that the percentage of adolescents who mentioned that they will not be
pressurized by their friend and would return the extra sum to the shopkeeper and at the
same time would make their friend understand the reason for the same, more than
doubled in the post test (post 40% pre 15%). Further, there was reduction in percentage
of adolescents who said that they would return the money without bothering about their
friend’s reaction (pre 52% and post 67%). Their responses reflect a better understanding
of dealing with peer pressure and acting with maturity.
Table 6: Adolescents reaction to peer pressure
Reactions
Will return money and will
Pre n = 40
Post n = 48
%
15.0
%
39.6
Total
N = 88
%
28.4
make him understand
Will return money without
bothering about my friend's
reaction whether he talks to me
or not.
Will listen to my friend and
will not return money because
can't make my friend annoyed
67.5
52.1
25.0
10.0
8.3
9.0
Situation III
If you come to know that your friend criticizes you behind your back, what will be
your reaction?
The number of adolescents who would react maturely to this situation increased after the
session. Half of the adolescents said that they would try and make their friend understand
‘what is good & what is bad’ in friendship and also ask him/her not to repeat the same in
future. Further, the number of adolescents who would react impulsively decreased from
pre to post test (table 7). Adolescents, who would get angry and fight with their friend
and also break their friendship decreased by nearly 9% (post 23% and pre 32%) after the
intervention,.
Table 7: Adolescents reaction on learning about a friend criticizing him/her
Reactions
Pre n = 40
Post n = 48
Total
N = 88
%
%
%
Will be angry with him. will
32.5
22.9
27.2
fight back and discontinue
friendship with him
Will make him understand what
42.5
50.0
46.5
is good and bad in 'friendship'
and ask him not to repeat again
in future
Though I will behave with him
15.0
16.7
15.9
I would wish one day he would
realize
Qualities possessed by adolescents
Self confidence is the ability to trust one’s own decisions and instincts. Most young
adolescents are worried about their looks, unsure of their abilities and concerned about
friends. In this time of uncertainty, development of self confidence is critical. Self
confidence is like a three –legged stool; each leg is needed to keep the stool standinghaving skills, feeling appreciated and being responsible.
Table 8: Qualities possessed by adolescents
Pre n = 40
Qualities possessed
%
Self Confidence
Yes
90.0
No
2.5
Simplicity
Yes
82.5
No
15.0
Good looking
Yes
41
No
6
Intelligent
Yes
87.5
No
10.0
Responsible
Yes
47.1
No
38.9
Positive Attitude
Yes
57.5
No
40.0
Some skills
Yes
82.5
No
15.0
Liked and accepted by others
Yes
60.0
No
37.5
Can take decisions independently
Yes
75.0
No
22.5
Post n = 48
Total
N = 88
%
%
91.7
0
90.9
1.1
81.3
16.7
81.8
15.9
85.4
12.5
79.5
18.2
91.7
6.3
89.8
8.0
52.9
61.1
77.2
20.4
75.0
22.9
67.0
30.7
77.1
20.8
70.5
18.2
72.9
25.0
67.0
30.7
72.9
25.0
73.9
23.9
The results of the pre and post test scores for the qualities possessed by the adolescents
are presented in table 8. Majority of the adolescents, both before and after the
intervention said they were confident. Further they were also asked to respond on
qualities they possess. Again, most (82%) adolescents claimed of being simple. The
percentage of adolescents who perceived of being good looking (pre72%, post85%),
intelligent (pre 87%, post 92%) and responsible (pre 57%, post 75%) increased after the
intervention. Along with that, the percentage of adolescents who thought that they are
accepted and liked by others also increased (pre 60%, post 73%). One positive outcome
of the sessions was acceptance by some of the adolescents of having a negative attitude
(pre20%, post 33%). Awareness and acceptance is the first step towards any change. The
program helped them not only to become aware of their good qualities and thus raise
their self worth and confidence but also made them alert of any wrong attitude.
Highlights of the results

The intervention program helped adolescents to get a better insight of the changes
going on in their bodies and also to understand that all those changes are a normal
part of growing up.

The sessions helped to improve their self image as well as boost their confidence
level.

It helped to improve their self understanding and thereby lay foundation of an
integrated sense of identity.

Though the program was able to achieve information and knowledge gain, the
required modifications/changes in attitude and behavior, which are deeply rooted.
CONCLUSION
The life skill intervention program was an effort to reach out to the adolescents who are
underprivileged and promote psychosocial competence in an interactive and participatory
learning environment. The sessions, not only provided knowledge and information base
on various skills like decision making, communication, dealing with conflicts, coping
with peer pressure and emotions but also equipped the adolescents with the personal and
social skills they need to translate their knowledge into behavior.
The program was modified to mould it to the needs of tribal adolescents as well as made
context appropriate. For this, certain changes were brought into it, such as mellowing
down the topic of physical changes and due to cultural taboo, it was dealt separately with
boys and girls.
Though the program was effective in raising the awareness level of the adolescents and
provide a basis for making informed decisions, translation of this knowledge into attitude
and behavior would require more efforts on a regular basis.
It is recommended that the life skill education should be imparted on a regular basis and
if possible could also be interwoven with the academic curriculum. Further, as parents
and teachers interact with the adolescents on day to day basis, they could also be trained
to impart the skills to the adolescents.
For the youth to enter the community of responsible adults prepared for a diversity of
social roles, they must possess critical thinking and problem solving skills along with
effective resources and social competence. Life skills impart such skills and not only help
the well-being of the youth but also contribute to a bright future of the nation.
REFERENCES
Hechinger, J. (1992). Fateful Choices. New York:Hill &Wang
Sukant & Soumendra. (2008). Indian Tribes and the Mainstream. Rawat:Jaipur
WHO, (1994). http://whqlibdoc.who.int/HQ/1994/WHO_MNH_PSF_93.7A_Rev.2.pdf
Authors:
Sangeeta Chaudhary Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
Dept. of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS)
Faculty of Family and Community Sciences (FCS)
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Vadodara, Gujarat .
India .
Ph-(Office) +91-265-2793984
(M) 9825568416
E-Mail: schaudhary_13@yahoo.co.in
Bhamini Mehta,Ph.D.
Lecturer
Dept. of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS)
Faculty of Family and Community Sciences (FCS)
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Vadodara, Gujarat .
India .
Ph-(Office) +91-265-2793984