The Importance of Life Skills in Adolescence

Opinion Article

TeenSmart International (2024) conducted an analysis of over 19,000 responses to health questionnaires on the JovenSalud platform to identify key factors that positively influence the mental health of our young users, and it was clearly highlighted that possessing solid life skills has a very positive impact. 

Some of these life skills that are of great importance include: 

• Self-agency, to be able to get informed and make smart decisions.
• Setting goals and objectives that affect quality of life.
• Organizational skills, precisely to achieve those goals.
• Self-renewal in all areas of life (mental, physical, spiritual).
• Effective communication with others: listening and having the courage to speak.

The first mentioned set of skills relate to how to manage and organize the own life. Nowadays, with so much access to technology, it is important to create paths that also help to build digital self-agency so that young people have more intentionality and control over how they use technology. 

As for social skills, these refer to the ability of individuals to establish quality relationships. Family and friends teach us to create bonds, connections, to be empathetic and assertive. 

To help create and strengthen life skills, families can be intentional modeling good practices that adults already know and apply daily, while allowing teens to experiment and discover their own.

For example, perhaps when studying on their own, teens will do it with music or walking around. Maybe they want to experiment with 10 alarm clocks with 5-minute intervals or get up at the first sound. It may not be easy to give them freedom to experiment when we believe that our way is the best or the right one. But it’s worth seeing them succeed and feel satisfied with themselves. 

Let’s teach through our actions and our coherence. And let them teach us too. Involving young people is not only imperative, but also a strategic act. By investing in life skills of our youth and promoting healthy and intelligent decisions, we are all helping to shape a generation of passionate, informed, and committed citizens, ready to face the challenges of today and tomorrow.