Association between Life Skills and Academic Performance in Adolescents in the Autonomous Community of Aragon (Spain)

Role of life-skills and attitude toward alcohol abuse in predicting academic achievement of school students

BACKGROUND

Life skills are crucial for young adults to lead a successful, satisfying, and productive life. There is enough evidence suggesting a positive relationship between life skills and academic performance. Substance abuse among adolescents is a common problem that often leads to academic disorientation and delinquent behavior. This study aimed to determine whether life skills and attitudes toward alcohol abuse predicted school students' academic achievement.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

The participants (N = 726) enrolled in senior secondary schools of Sikkim, a north-eastern state of India, constituted the population of the present study. Data were collected using the "Life Skills Assessment Scale" developed by Subashree and Nair (2014), and the "Attitude towards Alcohol Abuse Scale" developed by the investigators.

RESULT

Life skills and attitude toward alcohol abuse significantly predict students' academic achievement. 15.3% variance in academic achievements of the students was explained by life skills and attitude toward alcohol abuse. Further, the t-test result reflects that both the variables had significant predictive power to predict students' academic achievement.

CONCLUSION

The finding shows that there was a significant relationship between academic achievement and life skills and attitude toward alcohol abuse of school students. Life skills and attitude toward alcohol abuse predicted 15.3% of the variance in academic achievement.

Comparative analysis of the effectiveness of interactive radio and interactive television instructions on improvement in life skills among out-of-school nomadic children in Northern Nigeria

Out-of-school children are children of school age who have not been enrolled in any formal learning programme. Despite the high number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, literature is yet to pay significant attention to ways of assisting these vulnerable children to acquire life skills. This study was a comparative analysis of the impact of interactive radio (IR) and interactive television (ITV) instructions in assisting out-of-school nomadic children to develop life skills. A quasi experimental design was utilized to conduct the study involving a sample of 470 nomadic children. Going by the result, although both respondents in the IR and ITV reported a significant increase in their life skills after the intervention, participants in the ITV group reported higher score (β = .721) in their life skills than their counterparts in IR (β = .511). It is recommended, among others, that stakeholders in the education sector should consider the use of IR and ITV as instruments for teaching out-of-school nomadic children in Nigeria with a greater focus on ITV.

A comparative study of life skills, lifestyle habits and academic performance in health promoting and non-health promoting schools in the Autonomous Community of Aragon, Spain

Background

There is insufficient evidence about the impact of health promoting schools on the student's health and academic performance. The aim of this study was to compare the life skills, lifestyle habits and academic performance of 7^th and 8^th grade students registered in health promoting and non-health promoting schools in the Autonomous Community of Aragon.

Methods

An observational, descriptive, comparative study of the life skills, lifestyle habits and academic performance of 7^th and 8^th grade students registered in 43 randomly selected health promoting and non-health promoting schools was carried out. We used an adapted tool, which was validated through the expert panel technique, to evaluate the students' life skills (self-efficacy, social skills and affect balance), lifestyle habits (diet, sleep, physical exercise, use of screen and substance abuse) and academic performance.

Results

The socioeconomic level of the mothers and fathers of the students who attended non-health promoting schools was significantly higher than that of the parents of the adolescents who attended health promoting schools (p < 0.001). The students who attended non-health promoting schools had better self-efficacy, led a healthier life generally and achieved better academic results (p = 0.03).

Conclusions

As opposed to previous studies, which found a positive association between health promoting schools and life skills, lifestyle habits and academic performance, our findings suggest that the impact of these health programs on the students' health and academic performance is limited. We recommend that the degree of implementation of health promotion programs in health promoting schools is systematically evaluated, and the health promoting school accreditation process and requirements reviewed, in order to ensure that the health of school children and adolescents is safeguarded and promoted in the short, medium and long term.

Healthy Lifestyle and Academic Performance in Middle School Students from the Region of Aragón (Spain)

A healthy lifestyle is important to the present and future development and health of school age people. This study aims to analyze the relationship between daily lifestyle habits and academic performance in a sample of adolescents from the autonomous community of Aragon (Spain). We performed a cross-sectional study to analyze the lifestyle habits and academic performance of a total of 1745 7th and 8th grade middle school students during the academic year 2018–2019; the participants were selected from a random sample of 43 middle schools from the region of Aragon. The following data were collected through an anonymized, previously validated questionnaire: diet, sleep, physical activity, use of screens, use of toxic substances, and academic performance. We found a statistically significant association between all the lifestyle habits analyzed and academic performance (p < 0.001) in our sample. Based on our findings, we suggest that health promotion and education in healthy lifestyles should be integrated in middle school curricula to improve academic performance and, more importantly, to promote both present and future health outcomes of adolescents.