Life skills education for adolescents

Shipra Nagar
Adolescents, the 10 to 19 years age group, accounts for one fifth of the world’s population. They have very special and distinct needs, which can no longer be overlooked. By addressing their needs, one would not only be contributing to the socio-economic development of the country but also in other societal concerns like social harmony, gender justice and population stabilization. Adolescence is also a stage when young people extend their relationships beyond parents and family and are intensely influenced by their peers and the outside world in general.
Technological advances have made the world a global village. Technology has also made adolescents more dependent on the parent economically than in the agricultural era. Today’s youth is exposed to more information and cultural alternatives than in earlier periods. This provides them culturally diverse choices, which cannot be easily exercised due to economic dependence. Rapidly changing social, moral, ethical and religious values have ushered in certain ‘life styles’ in the present society especially among the youth.
Certain inbuilt buffers of society (both as support and control) are no longer available to the adolescents of today for instance, extended family system, the smaller community that is personal and closed be it a village or religious community, uniform culture in the smaller circle of living, traditional ways of thinking. The stress faced by the adolescent in such a situation is enormous. This is reflected in rising suicide rates and growing crime among young persons. There is an urgent need to provide today’s youth with a new set of ways and systems to deal with the demands of life. Since the ‘individual’ rather than the ‘system’ is recognized as the basic unit of society, it is essential that the youth be helped to develop skills inherent to handle a wide variety of choices, changes and stressors. The values of a stable society and the family have to be strengthened with the skills of the individual, which would enable him/her to be stable amidst rapid transition.
Psychologically children of today’s times generally show certain characteristics like low frustration tolerance, being aggressive easily, low self-esteem, and instant pleasure gratification. The essential life skills need to be taught to children right from the period of childhood in the schools itself.
Keeping all the above cultural diversities in mind, the World Health Organization (WHO) laid emphasis on LIFE SKILLS, which are necessary to all youth alike across the globe. In 1997 the WHO addressed this issue and a well-researched package of Life Skill Development was produced. According to WHO< life skills are “living skills or abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with demands and challenges of everyday life”.
The following are the ten generic skills which come in the category of Life Skills.
1. Critical Thinking: It is the ability to analyze information and experiences in an objective manner.
2. Creative Thinking: It is an ability that helps us look beyond our direct experience and address issues in a perspective which is different from the obvious or the norm. It adds novelty and flexibility to the situations of our daily life. It contributes to problem solving and decision making by enabling us to explore available alternatives and various consequences of our actions or non-actions.
3. Decision Making: It is the process of making assessment of an issue by considering all possible/available options and the effects different decisions might have on them.
4. Problem Solving: Having made decisions about each of the options, choosing the one which is the best suited, following it through the process again till a positive outcome of the problem is achieved.
5. Interpersonal Relationship: It is a skill that helps us to understand our relations with others and relate in a positive/reciprocal manner with them. It helps us to maintain relationships with friends and family members and also to be able to end relationships constructively.
6. Effective Communication: It is the ability to express ourselves both verbally and non-verbally in an appropriate manner. This means being able to express desires, opinions, and fear and seek assistance and advice in times of need.
7. Coping with Emotions: Involves recognizing emotions in others, the ourselves, being aware of how emotions influence behavior and being able to respond to emotions appropriately.
8. Coping with Stress: It is an ability to recognize the source of stress in our lives, its effect on us and acting in ways that help to control our levels of stress. This may involve taking action to reduce some stress for example changes in physical environment, life styles, learning to relax etc.
9. Self Awareness: Includes our recognition of ourselves, our character, strengths and weaknesses, desires and dislikes. It is a pre-requisite for effective communication, interpersonal relationship and developing empathy.
10. Empathy: It is the ability to imagine what life is like for another person even in a situation that we may not be familiar with. It helps us to understand and accept others and their behavior that may be very different from ourselves.
It is evident that Life Skills include various areas like thinking, behavior, and emotions. The final target is self-awareness, self-esteem and accepting of others. In an individual, Life Skills develop-p over the years continuously in an active manner. There are many skills, which are needed to successfully negotiate each and every interaction.
Life Skills occur over the developmental period of one’s life. Growth and development are the two important tasks of childhood. While most people learn the skills to a certain extent, they often lack the ability to use the correct skill at the appropriate place, time and extent. Hence there is a need for persons involved and concerned with youth to be aware of Skill Development and nurture and enhance all Life skills in every single child/adolescent they are in contact with.
The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of HDFS, College of Home Science, CAU, Tura, Meghalaya.
For further details contact:- Public Relation & Media Management Cell, CAU, Imphal. Email: prmmcell@gmail.com