LIFE SKILLS ARE CRITICAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Life skills address the whole individual and therefore can lead to overall, sustained life-long behavior change.
The life skills approach asserts that if children and young people are provided with the opportunity to learn skills in a supportive environment, they can confidently manage their lives in a positive manner while serving as valuable resources to their friends, families and community.
LIFE SKILLS LEAD TO BEHAVIOR CHANGE
1. Knowledge is Not Enough
Experience indicates that building awareness and
providing knowledge is not enough to influence behavior. Although people may understand risk, they may not make rational decisions to change their behavior to reduce these risks. We also know that while any change in behavior is difficult, changing sexual behavior, risk behavior or coping behavior is especially difficult.
Information
Change in behavior
I know may risk, so will I change?
2. Knowledge Must Impact Attitudes and Values to Change Behavior Life skills are one approach that changes attitudes and values to affect behavior.
Information + Life Skills
Knowledge (applied) Change in Behavior Stronger Me
I know my risk
I know HOW to manage my risk
I am confident I am in control I can meet challenges I can learn and work with others
Better health Safe lifestyles Empowerment
Attitudes and values influence our behavior. Life skills activities provide opportunities to understand and assimilate information and to reflect on one’s beliefs and attitudes. An increased sense of competence is cultivated by practicing skills. These efforts, when encouraged in a supportive environment, lead to changes in behavior. Such behavior change may be learned in specific contexts (such as street children learning how to have safe sex), but the skills can also be adapted and applied to many other contexts—
now and in the future. For example, a child who has learned to say no to steal can learn to be assertive in many other situations as well.
3. Vulnerable Children and Children in Difficult Circumstances Especially Need Help Vulnerable children such as street children, children of sex workers and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are especially at risk. Life skills are essential to reduce risk and cope with threatening and difficult situations.
Children and young people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS have particular needs and problems. A Life Skills Education Program can be tailored to address these varied needs—such as a street child who needs to resist peer pressure, a child whose parent has died of HIV/AIDS needs to cope with various emotions accompanied with loss, or a child of a sex worker who must learn how to identify a potentially exploitative situation.
4. Gender Can Influence Risk and Risk Behavior
Girls are especially at risk and need to be empowered to enable them to make safe choices. Boys need to learn about responsible behavior and develop a sense of male identity that does not include sexual risk taking. Gender is especially important in determining sexual behavior. Life skills address gender issues to reduce risk and promote safe behavior.
Risk/Problems How Life Skills Help
Situation is risky/difficult to cope I know and understand my risk/problem Low self-esteem I believe I can do something about it Cannot express feelings I can express what I feel
Poor communication I can relate to others Poor critical thinking I think before I act
Poor decision making I decide what is safe and what makes me happy Influenced by peers I can say no
Do not know safe/coping behavior I act in a way that I am always safe and can cope Am only concerned about myself I help others
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5. Young people are especially at risk of HIV and need to know how to lead positive and responsible lifestyles.
In a modern, complex world bombarded by media and other influences, young people are especially at risk for getting infected with HIV infection. Most new STI/HIV infections are among young people. Young people need to have information to behave in ways that prevent risky behavior and reduce their vulnerability to acquiring STI/HIV. They also need to learn how to lead healthy lives so that they can become valued and responsible members of their families and communities. Young people living in slums and in marginalized communities are especially vulnerable because they lack knowledge, have poor access to services and do not know how to reduce their vulnerability. Poverty and lack of employment opportunities also can contribute to increasing the vulnerability towards HIV infection. Life skills help young people become mature thinkers, build positive relationships, take
responsibility and cope with stress. Life skills enable them to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life and lay the foundation for responsible adult social behavior.
6Source: Information Series on School Health Document 9, SKILLS FOR HEALTH, Pg. 30. (WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF,
THE WORLD BANK 2000).
• Lessons and activities offer a good balance of knowledge combined with discussions on attitudes, values and life skills.
• Programs are built around the needs of young people.
• Gender sensitivity (addressing the differences between boys and girls) is an essential part of the program.
• Participatory and active teaching-learning methods are used to ensure that young people participate instead of being merely passive recipients.
Research Evidence for Life skills:
Three Key Findings6
1. Education that concentrates on developing skills for making healthy choices in life in addition to imparting health-related knowledge, attitudes, values, services and support is more likely to produce desired outcomes;
2. Skill development is more likely to result in the desired healthy behavior when
practicing the skill is tied to the content of a specific health behavior or health decision, such as reducing risky behavior related to HIV/AIDS; and
3. The most effective method of skill development is learning by doing, by involving people in active, participatory, learning experiences rather than passive ones.
LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION PROGRAMS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN TRADITIONAL INFORMATION BASED PROGRAMS
• Life Skills Education Programs target changes in specific behaviors; activities go beyond changing knowledge, attitudes and values.
7For an excellent discussion on these theories see WHO, Skills for Health, Information Series on School Health, Document 9. These
include Child and Adolescent Development Theories, Multiple Intelligences, Social Learning Theory, Problem-Solving Theory, Social Inoculation Theory, Cognitive Problem Solving, Resilience Theory, Health Belief Model and Stages of Change Theory. Table is adapted from Child-to-Child sources
8See www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/whatsc.htm for a discussion on social capital. There is increasing evidence that social
cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable.
HOW LIFE SKILLS ARE LEARNED
A number of theories and research in the field of education, child development and behavioral science have helped to shape understanding and approaches to learning life skills. These theories explain how behavior is shaped through a complex combination of biological, social and cognitive processes. We now know how children grow, learn, and acquire knowledge, attitudes and skills. We also understand better how parents, peers, family, school and others in the
community and media influence their behavior. Experience from the field, however, cautions us to be wary of these theories because they have been developed by scientists in the Western world and need to be researched in other cultural settings.7 It is increasingly recognized
that the relevance of these theories need to be tested and adapted for different cultures and in program design.
Program experiences in different cultures have indicated the importance of supportive environments that build on available “social capital.”8 By social capital we mean the various
institutions, relationships and norms that shape the quality and quantity of our social
interactions. It is the glue that holds a society together. In many cultures and communities, the strength of the available social capital has been vital in sustaining programs. When involving the larger community in a Life Skills Education Program, children are also encouraged to contribute to their communities.
The interactive methodology and approach advocated by the child-to-child approach adapts concepts from child development theories into program design that have been refined in diverse cultures through over 25 years of vast field experience. The child-to-child approach respects and recognizes the rights of children for healthy, safe and happy living.
The life skills methodology uses the available conceptual models to develop a combination of learning experiences that develop not only knowledge and attitudes, but also skills (i.e. life skills), which are needed to make decisions and take positive actions to change behaviors. Children learn to make specific health-related choices such as choosing not to have sex, resisting peer pressure, negotiating in risky situations, learning how to communicate clearly, and building healthy relationships.
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• The right kind of information, at the right time, provided in the right way. For example: Young girls and boys receive correct information in simple language using active learning methods about how older men can lure them into sex and why it is important to have safe sex.
For example: Young boys and girls may know that abstaining from sex is important, but may not have the skills to resist pressure or avoid a risky
situation, making it difficult for him/her to put knowledge into practice. If s/he is taught skills such as how to:
• Seek help if an adult is harassing him/her for sex.
• Negotiate with a boyfriend or girlfriend who is pressurizing for sex (without losing the friendship).
• Persuade parents not to enter into marriage at a young age.
…Then s/he is better able to abstain from sex or avoid being enticed into unsafe sexual situations.
Even if young people have the information and the skills to implement
information, they still need to feel motivated to change behavior. Motivation to lessen risk comes from different sources:
• Friends or family (through praise, encouragement and fostering a sense of belonging).
• A religious or support group.
• Self-motivation, such as developing goals and understanding how our values affect behavior.
• A strong moral code within family or community.
• Support from trusted adults such as health workers, teachers.
• Exposure to the consequences of risks, such as a friend or family member sick or dying from HIV/AIDS.
Supportive external influences of peers, family, school, community, society as a whole, cultural and religious influences, media, government policy and law; peers who have successfully moved on to provide excellent supportive environments through understanding and experience sharing.
Information + skills + motivation + supportive environment = safer, healthy choices Information PLUS
Life skills or the ability to act PLUS
Motivation PLUS
A supportive environment
Poster on how life skills empower children to make crucial decisions
LIFE SKILLS ARE IMPORTANT BUILDING BLOCKS FOR EXISTING OVC PROGRAMS
Orphans and vulnerable children; and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS have educational, growth and developmental needs such as good nutrition, health care, social acceptance and recreation. Other needs such as legal and livelihood needs also demand urgent attention. A Life Skills Education Program contributes to and coordinates with programs
that attend to these needs. By strengthening and linking other programs with life skills, we recognize the holistic development of the child and value the child as a person in his or her own right.
Explanations for children’s behavior rest on an amalgam of factors including information, skills, motivation and the environment in which they express their behavior.
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