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Life Skills Training: Ways in Which It Can Prevent Substance Abuse

Parents and school authorities often get worried about the safety and health of children when they are in their teen years. Many factors including stress and peer pressure encourage young adults to resort to substance abuse such as drinking, smoking, and drug consumption. This further leads to unhealthy lifestyle habits, drunken driving, unsafe sexual behavior, and disruptive classroom behavior.

Life skills training for middle and high school students can assist in combating substance abuse by teaching self and social management skills to adolescents. The training stimulates students to avoid risky behavior, resist peer pressure, and understand media influence. The program also involves educating young adults about the possible consequences of substance abuse.

Every educational institution can include life skills training in their regular curriculum to help students stay away from drugs, alcohol, and smoking. The training can be set-up just like any other classroom program and carried on for up to 15 sessions. It is recommended that teachers ensure follow-up sessions for analyzing progress.

Let’s see what can be taught through life skills training and how substance abuse can be reduced.

Aspects of Life Skills Training

Life skills training promotes the development of healthy habits and enables students to take control of unhealthy ones by answering questions such as:

How to resist pressure from peers and friends?

How to develop better defense mechanisms to internally fight with the lure of drug abuse?

How to efficiently handle the anxiety of educational pressures?

How to increase behavioral and cognitive competency to prevent substance abuse?

More than any other benefit, LST teaches young adults about the consequences of substance abuse.

Let’s evaluate how this program can be implemented and what is taught as a part of the curriculum.

1. Self-Management Training

Under this section, the life skills program teaches students how to deal with the many complexities of life. It empowers young adults with better decision making, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. The individual can learn to deal with anxiety and stress and implement all these changes in their personal behavior on a long-term basis.

The ultimate goal of this life skill training session is to encourage students to learn how to manage their own emotions and impulses effectively.

2. Social Skills Training

Firstly, individuals are taught to communicate effectively in this section. It includes:

How can you avoid misunderstandings?

How can you have brief social interactions?

How can you meet and greet new people?

How can you have healthy and positive relationships with peers?

Secondly, individuals are taught to converse nicely. It includes:

How can you initiate a healthy conversation?

How this conversation can be sustained?

How this conversation can be concluded meaningfully?

How to receive and give compliments to others?

Apart from this, students are taught to speak for their rights and deny unreasonable demands such as being forced to have a sip of alcohol at a party. Overall, every aspect is taught through practical training and examples, which leaves a long-term impact.

3. Drug Resistance

The drug-resistance module is the most essential section of life skills training because it teaches students the following things:

Social influence from peers and adults that may lead to substance abuse.

Corrects the notion that everyone should consume alcohol and use drugs.

Provide correct methods that can help students in preventing substance abuse in relevant situations or circumstances.

Teaches adolescents how to refuse drugs and alcohol in a safe and firm manner.

Students spend the most time with their peers and classmates. These individuals don’t usually have a proper understanding of the perils of substance abuse, which means that they often lack the correct guidance and support. Implementing drug resistance training in school can prevent addiction and drug use among students.

Studies About Life Skills Training

In a study, various schools were found that had similar smoking rates. These schools were randomly divided into control and prevention groups. Each student involved in the study was pre-tested and the prevention group was given life skill training while the control group was not. The results were amazing with up to 75 percent of students in the prevention group being able to eliminate smoking habits.

Many other studies reveal that a good LST program can reduce alcohol use on a short-term and long-term basis (if follow-up is properly implemented). One study observed a 50 percent reduction in binge drinking in students belonging to the prevention group. In another study, the relative reduction rate went up to 4 percent approximately after a 1-year follow-up.

Polydrug use can also be reduced with life skills training as studies suggest. A particular study saw 27 percent less polydrug use in the intervention group after a 1-year follow-up. Similarly, a second study observed 66 percent lower polydrug use in the intervention group after a 6-year follow up.

Conclusion

With proper implementation and execution of life skills training, substance abuse can be prevented at an early age. It can help the schools and educational institutions reduce risky driving behavior, HIV-risk habits, substance use, aggression as well as cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use. The training further promotes healthy habits and helps improve mental health. Hence, including LST in a school curriculum can have a positive long-term impact.

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