Feasibility and short-term outcomes of a locally adapted life-skills intervention in adolescents experiencing chronic adversities: A multi-site study

Background: Chronic adversities predispose adolescents to ‘social vulnerability, delinquency, deprivation and violence’ which significantly affect their mental health. School-based curriculum has limited focus on skill development that improves psychosocial competence and resilience. Hence community oriented training on life skills based education can prepare youths to mitigate challenges of urban slums and disaster prone areas.

Novelty: Present study focuses on vulnerable adolescents living in slum households or disaster prone areas. With an aim to provide locally adapted, sustained life skills education in the natural setting, through trained community representatives.

Objectives:

1. To locally adapt the NIMHANS life skill intervention module ‘Empowering Adolescents with Life Skills for Psychosocial Competence’, to be delivered to adolescents facing chronic adversities in the urban slums of Kolkata and Chennai, and Sundarbans delta.
2. To test the feasibility and outcome of the locally adapted life-skill intervention modules on life skill levels among adolescents in the study sites.

Methods:

The study will be conducted in 2 phases.

Phase I includes Adaptation and development of locally adapted life skill intervention module. The module will be adapted from the NIMHANS life skill intervention module focussing on the 10 core life skill domains as per WHO recommendations.

Phase II includes intervention delivery at community sites and outcome assessment using a pre-post design.

Expected Outcomes:

1. Development and sustained delivery of a brief locally adapted Life Skills Module
2. Improvement of vulnerable adolescents in different life skill domains