Abstract

GORAYEB, Ricardo. Teaching life skills in schools in Brazil . Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2002, vol.3, n.2, pp.213-217. ISSN 1645-0086.

Life Skills are skills for positive adaptive behavior that enable us to deal efficiently with daily demands and challenges. They include personal skills that enhance interpersonal relationships. The WHO has suggested the development of programs to reduce health risk behaviors and to improve physical and mental health care. Teenagers are a special target population for these programs because of their increased vulnerability. We have been developing in Brazil programs to teach life skills to teenagers in a public school for future teachers, using culturally adapted material from WHO programs. The aim is to qualify today's teenagers and to train multipliers to incorporate these skills into their everyday professional practices. Oral expositions, group discussions, dramatization (role playing) and group dynamics techniques are utilized in weekly sessions. The program was adequately adapted and we observed an increase in knowledge concerning the skills. Teenagers incorporated skills into their everyday life, improving the quality of their personal interrelationships and increasing their social competence.

Keywords : Adolescence; Community health promotion; Life skills; Risk behaviors; Social competence.

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