Implementing process of a Life Skills Program for Working Adolescents

Abstract

This study presents the first stage of a relationship project aimed to implement a life skills program (WHO) during the 2018-2019 academic year. This is a quantitative inferential study with a cross-sectional approach and a planned sample selection. Eighty-two adolescent workers from the city of Quito participated in this research. The goal is to identify the group’s social competencies and the differences between male and female adolescents. This is a life skills’ training methodology which is very effective as a tool that facilitates satisfactory adaptability in their functioning environment. This life skills-based methodology provides important theoretical support in the design and implementation of intervention programs with adolescents and facilitates the assimilation of cognitive and social skills giving youngsters helpful resources so they could face the challenges that life has to offer. For measuring social competences, the "Social Cognitive Attitudes and Strategies" (AECS) test is used through the application of a comparative analysis of means, of the 19 subscales contained in the experiment. The results of the first evaluation, in which statistically significant differences were found between men and women, are shown in 5 scales: 1. aggressiveness, 2. dominance, 3. divergence/convergence, 4. ability/inability to anticipate and understand the likely social behaviors consequences and 5. Ability/inability for choosing the appropriate means to achieve the pursued goals in social behavior and in democratic/authoritarian perception exercise of parental discipline.