Developmental Status of Life Skills among Adolescent Girls Living in Low Socio-Economic Status

Adolescence has been labeled as a stage of storm and stress. Life skills are the abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. As today's adolescent girls are tomorrow's women, development of appropriate life skills and capabilities among them has prime importance to ensure them to lead quality life. The present study was undertaken to assess the developmental status in terms of selected life skills such as self confidence, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and stress management of urban adolescent girls living in low socio-economic conditions. The sample was comprised of 150 adolescent girls aged between 15 to 17 years studying in the government senior secondary schools of Ludhiana City and belonging to low socio economic status. The results revealed that girls having graduate parents and non working mothers, more number of siblings and joint families, possessed greater self confidence, better interpersonal skills, while daughters of matriculate mothers perceived greater stress as well as used more stress coping strategies as compared to their counterparts from other categories.