Life Skills Intervention for Behavioural Change among Students of a Government High School in Karnataka

Abstract

Adolescence is a transitional phase with physical, social and psychological changes. With the influence of rapid societal changes, it has become difficult for teachers and parents to manage adolescents. A government school in Karnataka had approached to provide behavioural intervention session for their students. A tailor-made life skills intervention aimed at bringing behavioural changes among students was designed. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of a four-day life skills intervention on change in behaviour among students of a government high school in Karnataka. A semi-structured Pre- and post-test self-administered questionnaire which included a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was administered to participants. This tailor-made intervention for adolescents in a school showed significant improvement in emotional symptoms (p=0.002) following the intervention. The intervention was provided to 137 students. It was observed that out of 17 (21%) participants who reported to have borderline symptoms for strengths and difficulties, 13 (76%) participants improved after training. Out of 7 (8.7%) participants who reported to have abnormal symptoms for strengths and difficulties during pre-test, about 5 (71%) participants improved post-training. There was improvement in all other domains of strengths and difficulties namely conduct problem, hyperactivity, peer relationship and prosocial behaviour scales, although not statistically significant. The total strengths and difficulties score decreased overall. Individually strengths and difficulties showed movement more towards the normal end rather than the abnormal end of the spectrum of strengths and difficulties scores. The result of this tailor-made intervention program has implications for adolescents from similar socio-economic background as well as adaptation of this intervention among adolescents in different situations.