An Epidemiological Study to Assess Essential Life Skills and its Predictors Among Adolescents in an Urban Slum Area

Abstract

Background: Essential life skills are a vast range of psychological and interpersonal abilities that can help people lead healthy and productive lives, make informed decisions, communicate effectively, and build coping and self-management skills. Adolescence is the building block for these skills, and the current study was planned to estimate these life skills among school-going children in a slum area. Methodology: The study was conducted in a slum area of Mumbai, where 158 adolescents (10–19 years) were selected by systematic random sampling. The assessment of sociodemographic profile and life skills based on five domains: time management, communication, leadership, goal setting, and coping skills, was done for 1.5 years. Results: The study involved participants with a mean age of 15 ± 2.3 years, primarily in early (40.5%) and mid (39.2%) adolescence. Females constituted 51.3%, with 57.6% from UP and 18.4% from Bihar. Most families had male heads, mostly educated till middle school or illiterate. Mothers were often illiterate or had a primary school certificate. Participants typically had 3–5 siblings and stayed with their parents. The mean global life skills score was 212.9. Conclusions: The study will act as a road map for curriculum planning and designing of extracurricular activities for adolescents so that their life skill scores increase and they grow up as better human beings.

Keywords

• adolescent
• essential life skills
• self-management
• urban slum