A Descriptive Study to Assess the Life Skills Among Adolescents in Tea Garden of Assam.

Abilities that facilitate human to adjust with the numerous challenges of life are life skills . Adolescent is a stage of transition, where changes occur physically and psychologically and adolescents need to change and adapt towards these transitions in order to deal effectively in life. The current study focused to assess the life skills of tea garden teenagers. Descriptive research design with quantitative research approach was selected . The adolescents aged between 14 years to 17 years who had studied upto class VI were included in the study through total enumeration method with sample size 300. Socio-demographic datasheet (10 items) and 100 items Life Skills Assessment Scale was applied. Analysis was done using descriptive as well as inferential statistics. Finding of the study results concluded that the adolescents residing in tea garden, the mean age was 15 years with standard deviation of 1.04. Domain wise score of life skill was average in majority of the participants. Mean score of life skill was highest in interpersonal relationship and decision making and least in creative thinking domain. There was statistically significant association between residence (χ2=19.226, P=>0.01), parents occupational status (χ2=8.677, P=.004) with the global score of life skills. Significant association between residence (χ2=7.823,P=0.005), occupational status of parents(χ2=10.095,P=0.001) and empathy; significant association between education of father (χ2=4.349,P=0.049),occupational status of parents (χ2=5.813,P=0.028) and interpersonal relationships; significant association between age (χ2=11.337,P=.001), religion(χ2=5.467,P=.019), educational status (χ2= 12.345,P=>0.01), residence (χ2= 10.686,P=.001), occupational status of parents (χ2=6.162,P=.013) and creative thinking; significant association between age (χ2=10.159,P=.001), educational status(χ2 = 11.479,P=.001), residence(χ2= 26.808,p=>0.01) and occupational status of parents (χ2=9.917,P=.001) and decision making; significant association between religion (χ2=6.978, P=0.008), residence (χ2=4.532, P=.033), types of family (χ2=13.575,P=>0.01) and problem solving; significant association between residence (χ2=12.499, P=>0.01) and coping with emotions. Considering the result in the present study and limitations a same type of research study can be conducted in similar and different settings with larger samples to validate and generalize the study findings. KEYWORDS: Adolescent, life skill, challenges, abilities, transition.