Academic stress and levels of life skills among high school children

Background: The adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adulthood, filled with adjustments in the areas of physical, psychological, academic, social and family relationships. The mid adolescents need to be equipped with life skills to handle the problems, solve day today issues, cope with academic stress and achieve good mental health. Through the present study an effort was made to evaluate the academic stress and the levels of ten life skills recommended by WHO among 240 school going adolescents to undertake intervention programme to improve their stress coping abilities. Materials and Methods: The study is a formative research with a purpose to assess the levels of academic stress and life skills among 120 boys and 120 girls aged between 14 to 15 years and studying 10th class in high schools in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. A questionnaire consisting of a five point Likert type of rating scale for Life skills assessment and Academic stress scale were used. Results: Using independent sample t -test the difference between the girls and boys was studied with regard to life skills and also the academic stress. The association between the levels of academic stress and levels of life skills was examined using chi quare test, further, the correlation between academic stress and life skills of boys and girls was also studied. Conclusion: The study allows to conclude that the academic stress of the school going adolescents can be reduced by improving their LS as there is a strong relationship between these two variables in spite of the gender differences. Keywords: Academic stress, Life skills, Adolescents, High school children, Gender.