Life Skill Development: Educational Empowerment of Adolescent Girls

Adolescence is a vital stage of growth and development. It is characterized by rapid physiological changes and psychological maturation. As adolescents mature, their mental process becomes more analytical, developing abstract thinking and independent ideology. As today’s adolescent girls are tomorrow’s women, imparting education and developing life skills and capabilities in them have prime importance Life skill education promotes mental well being and equips them to face the realities of life. The present study was conducted to know the life skill development among rural adolescent girls and impact of intervention on life
skills. The sample for the study comprised of 120 adolescent girls studying in 8th and 9th standards of Uppinbetageri and Amminbavi villages of Dharwadtaluk. The girls belonging to age range of 13 to 15 years were randomly selected for the study. Checklists were used to collect the information regarding various life skills such as problem solving ability, creative thinking, critical thinking, coping with stress and empathy. The results of the study revealed that at pre test, majority of the adolescent girls experienced medium level of creative thinking (55%) and empathy (76.7%). About 7.5 per cent had high level of critical thinking,
coping with stress (70.9%) and problem solving ability (65.8%). After the intervention, majority of adolescent girls had high level of critical thinking (94.16%) followed by coping with stress (79.12%), problem solving (70%), creative thinking (50%) and empathy (57.5%). Thus, the intervention on life skill education is helpful for the rural adolescent girls to take positive actions andimproving their coping skills of stress and problem solving ability.