Effectiveness of life skill training program on stress among adolescents at a school setting

Background: Psychological stress during adolescence is a natural phenomenon. Issues related to academics, parents, peers, social life, and personal doubts have always created some queries in these young minds. But most of the times, they get neglected by care givers. So the psychological stress tends to go unchecked among school students. There is not much work done in the area of stress levels and interventions among Indian adolescents. So our primary objective was to test the effectiveness of life skill training program in reducing stress among adolescents. Methods: Forty two adolescent boys participated in the study. Prevalence of stress was determined by administering a standardized stress questionnaire. The intervention program consisted of seven daily sessions of 50 minutes each conducted within school timings. Life skills, stress management modules from NIMHANS model were selected to address adolescent stressors. SPSS 15 was used for data entry and analysis. Pre, post and three month follow up assessments were conducted. Results: 66% of the adolescents reported to be stressed. The mean stress scores among adolescents who underwent the intervention programreduced significantly from 133 to 116 after post one month and to 117 after post three month follow up (p<0.05). Conclusion: Results suggested that group based stress management programs if conducted regularly would be beneficial to reduce the stress levels. Positive feedback from students suggested that these activities were feasible and acceptable.