Strengthening Life Skills For Positive Youth Health Behaviour

Life skills education, using the peer-to-peer approach, can effectively promote youth health and protect young people from HIV, drugs, sexual abuse and other threats. This publication draws on experiences, lessons learned and recommendations from the 2005-2009 UNESCAP project "Strengthening Life Skills for Positive Youth Health Behaviour", which was implemented in Cambodia, China, Philippines and Sri Lanka. A youth-centered approach is adopted, with emphasis on psychological factors, social interaction and how to empower young people, especially out-of-school youth, with essential life skills to better deal with the many challenges they face in their daily lives. Wider socio-structural issues are addressed and key elements are put forward to help develop innovative and creative programmes and move Asia and the Pacific away from ineffective and costly single-problem focused strategies.

This open access volume critically reviews a diverse body of scholarship and practice that informs the conceptualization, curriculum, teaching and measurement of life skills in education settings around the world. It discusses life skills as they are implemented in schools and non-formal education, providing both qualitative and quantitative evidence of when, with whom, and how life skills do or do not impact young women’s and men’s lives in various contexts. Specifically, it examines the nature and importance of life skills, and how they are taught. It looks at the synergies and differences between life skills educational programmes and the way in which they promote social and emotional learning, vocational/employment education, and health and sexuality education. Finally, it explores how life skills may be better incorporated into education and how such education can address structures and relations of power to help youth achieve desired future outcomes, and goals set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Life skills education has gained considerable attention by education policymakers, researchers and educators as being the sine qua non for later achievements in life. It is nearly ubiquitous in global and national education policies, including the SDGs, because life skills are regarded as essential for a diverse set of purposes: reducing poverty, achieving gender equality, promoting economic growth, addressing climate change, fostering peace and global citizenship, and creating sustainable and healthy communities. Yet, to achieve these broad goals, questions persist as to which life skills are important, who needs to learn them, how they can be taught, and how they are best measured. This book addresses these questions.

Issued two times a year, the Asia-Pacific Population Journal is an invaluable resource containing opinions and analysis by experts on important issues related to population. It provides a medium for the international exchange of knowledge, experience, ideas, technical information and data on all aspects of population.

Sponsored by the Adolescent Mental Health Initiative of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania and the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands Trust, Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders, Second Edition, provides a major update since the first edition in 2005. It addresses the current state of knowledge about the major mental health disorders that emerge during adolescence, including updated DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. Here, six commissions established by the APPC and the Sunnylands Trust pool their expertise on adolescent anxiety, schizophrenia, substance use disorders, depression and bipolar disorders, eating disorders, and suicidal behavior in sections that thoroughly define each disorder, outline and assess available treatments, discuss prevention strategies, and suggest a research agenda based on what we know and don't yet know about these various conditions. Two additional behavioral disorders-gambling and internet addiction--are covered in this second edition. As a meaningful counterpoint to its primary focus on mental illness, the volume also incorporates the latest research from a seventh commission--on positive youth development--which addresses how we can fully prepare young people to be happy and successful throughout their lives. Concluding chapters discuss overarching issues regarding the behavioral and mental health of adolescents: overcoming the stigma of mental illness, the research, policy, and practice context for the delivery of evidence-based treatments, and the development of a more robust agenda to advance adolescent health. Integrating the work of eminent scholars in both psychology and psychiatry, this work will be an essential volume for academics and practicing clinicians and will serve as a wake-up call to mental health professionals and policy makers alike about the state of our nation's response to the needs of adolescents with mental disorders.

A fresh new e-book edition, focusing on the importance of collaboration between healthcare professionals and the community. The second e-book edition of Child, Youth and Family Health builds its focus on the importance of a collaborative partnership between healthcare professionals and members of the community. This approach is vital in supporting, maintaining and strengthening individual and community health across a range of contexts and life stages. Child, Youth and Family Health 2e e-book begins by discussing issues and challenges in child, youth and family health, before addressing contexts for nursing and midwifery, all of which helps readers apply theory to practice. This community healthcare textbook offers additional insight into the importance of the healthcare professional’s role when working with children, young people and their families, and looks at practical approaches such as program development, supporting family transitions and mental health promotion. There are three new chapters: ‘Communication with children, young people and families – a family strengths-based approach’, ‘Acute illness: Care for the child and their family’ and 'Health promotion through early childhood' along with a range of clinical scenarios, research highlights, practice highlights and critical questions and reflections. Written by authors who are nurses, midwives, early childhood educators and academics, along with a respected team of contributors and editors, Child, Youth and Family Health 2e provides an engaging perspective on the fundamental challenges and issues affecting the health and wellness of infants, children, young people and their families in Australia and New Zealand. Clinical Scenarios integrated throughout to provide context for practice. Research highlights provide examples of the most recent research and evidence based practice. Practice highlights feature up-to-date examples of best practice, policies and procedures in Australia and New Zealand. Key Points summarise the main issues in each chapter. Critical questions and reflection feature at the end of each chapter as a tool for tutorials. Useful Resources provide weblinks for up-to-date data, statistics, organisations and programs. Extensive references provide for further reading and research. Chapter 5 ‘Communication with children, young people and families’ completely revised with a ‘family strengths’ approach. New Chapter 8 'Health promotion through early childhood'. New Chapter 9 ‘Acute illness: Care for the child and their family’. Completely revised and updated with current statistics and data. Inclusion of contemporary public health policy. Inclusion of contemporary legislative and regulatory frameworks for health professionals.

Can school teach us to master life? This book confronts what the author sees as an ongoing trend in many Western democracies where citizens are increasingly being held accountable for their health and happiness. The author believes that the introduction of life skills in school shows a tendency to place more responsibility on the individual rather than address fundamental societal flaws that really should be solved politically. It examines how such responsibility to psychologically deal with these problems affects our mental health and quality of life. This book questions the fundamentals of the life mastery curriculum where we might be risking the creation of just another arena where children have to perform, challenging readers to evaluate more closely the premises, consequences and limitations of life mastery. The book, one of the first to question ‘life mastery’ as an achievable goal with critical reviews of the 21st century skills movement, will be of interest to psychologists, school counsellors, teachers, students, politicians, and any reader evaluating school curriculums in relation to the decline in youth and adolescent mental health.