The effects of life skills training on students’ self-esteem and public health

Life skills are necessary for having effective life these trainings are concerned in all periods of life. This study aims to investigate the role of group-wise life skills training on self-esteem and public health of students. In this semi-experimental study, 30 female students from the Applied-Scientific Centre of Bojnourd Welfare and Rehabilitation Organization randomly selected as sample after matching their sex, age, and education and divided into two groups of experimental and control. Experimental group received the life skill trainings in the form of workshop twice a week during the 8 sessions (each session took 2 hours). Both groups completed the Cooper-Smith Self-Esteem Test and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ- 28) before and after the training. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistical methods and paired T-Test and Analysis of Covariance in SPSS16. The results of the study show that based on analysis of covariance findings there is a significant difference between experimental and control groups since P value is lower than 0.01 (sig=0/0001) in both tests of self-esteem and public health. The results suggest that, life skills training can be effective in increasing the self-esteem of young people and could enhance the public health of students.