Constructing the Life Skills Education Experiences of Maldivian Adolescents: Exploring Personal Narratives of Transition, Challenge, and Becoming

Abstract

Life skills have been shown to help young people cope with challenges and facilitate their transition into adulthood. Few studies have explored life skills programs from the lived experiences of youth themselves. Using a retrospective narrative analysis approach, this study uses social construction and social learning theories to investigate how young people construct their experiences of life skills education in the context of their embedded social environments, including their relationships with family, school, and peers. The study incorporates a series of in-depth, face-to-face, and social media-based interviews with two young adults from the Maldives who had very different experiences in life skills programs. Capturing the participants’ subjective experiences of life skills over time, and in the context of their transition to adulthood, allowed us to make situated connections between program experiences and the participants’ everyday lives. The findings point to the importance of program duration and directly link program content to adolescents’ real-world experiences including critical life incidents, the need to provide more structure in the delivery of programs, and the importance of ensuring that program experiences align with relevant skills and competencies. Potential implications for life skills education programs are outlined.