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Stress Management A Life Skills Approach

Stress Management A Life Skills Approach
The phenomenon of “Stress” has been studied from the purview of stress as a ‘cause’ as a ‘consequence’ and as an ‘experience.’ Irrespective of the approach adopted, the fact that some amount of stress results in increased productivity, but excessive stress leads to self destruction (inverted ‘U’ concept of stress) raises many issues about managing stress effectively. This paper attempts to focus on Stress Management from the Life Skills Education perspective provided by the WHO (1996). ‘Life Skills Education’ refers to the teaching of life skills. Life skills have been defined as “abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life” (WHO 1993). They are essentially those abilities which help to promote mental well being and competence in young people as they face the realities of life. LSE enables individuals to learn and practice skills; it is based on an individual centred and activity oriented methodology. It subsumes the philosophy that young people should be empowered to take more responsibility for their action. Life skills, when taught as generic skills for life, are taught in the context of holistic health, relationships, social influences on behaviour, rights and responsibilities. The LSE programmes have wide ranging objectives as they address the psychosocial factors that affect behaviour. This approach was selected since studies by Kirby, Kreuter (1991), Caplan (1992), LaFromboise (1994), Ennett (1994), and many others all indicated that Life Skills Education was very successful, in equipping and preparing the younger generation to face the challenges of their adult years. It helped in reducing self-defeating, self-damaging behaviors like smoking, alcohol and drug use, suicide prevention as well as facilitated the ability to handle interpersonal problems effectively and cope with anxiety efficiently.

The study is...