Life Skills Training

Increasing the happiness of teenagers can provide a proper upbringing for the future generation of the country, and one of the ways to achieve this goal is to teach them life skills. This research was conducted with the aim of the effectiveness of the life skills training on the personal and social happiness of adolescents. This research is a quasi-experimental type with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. 40 students from the second secondary level of Zanjan city were selected by convenience sampling method and were randomly divided into two experimental (n = 20) and control groups (n = 20), and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) and the Social Happiness Questionnaire (SHQ) were administered to them as a pre-test and post-test. The life skills training course were conducted for eight sessions (180 minutes each session) on the experimental group, but no intervention was done on the control group during this period. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis and SPSS-23 software. The finding showed that the life skills training course has led to an increase in the personal and social happiness of adolescents (P<0.001). According to these findings, it can be concluded that life skills training as one of the important trainings can be effective in increasing the happiness of teenagers and determine the dynamics of the future generation of the country.

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the impact of life skills training on distress tolerance, psychological adaptation, and high-risk behaviors among incarcerated women. Methods: This was an applied, experimental study. The study population consisted of incarcerated women in Kerman Central Prison in 2022. Sixty participants exhibiting high-risk behaviors were randomly assigned into an experimental group (30 women) and a control group (30 women). The experimental group received the World Health Organization's (WHO, 1998) ten-session life skills training program, each lasting 90 minutes, while the control group was placed on a waiting list. Both groups were assessed using the Simons and Gaher Distress Tolerance Scale (2005), the Derogatis Psychological Adaptation Scale (1986), and the Rajaee and Shafiei High-Risk Behavior Questionnaire (2011) before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance with SPSS software. Findings: Results indicated that life skills training significantly impacted distress tolerance, psychological adaptation, and high-risk behaviors in incarcerated women (p < .01). Conclusion: Life skills training can be effectively utilized to enhance distress tolerance and psychological adaptation, and to reduce high-risk behaviors.