Published in the June 10-23, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Larry McElvain
Larry McElvain, Discovery Counseling Center
When the people of the Morgan Hill community bind together, we can make good things happen. And one of the good things we want to do is to make sure that our young people grow up to be happy and successful citizens. One way to achieve this is by teaching them life skills at an early age.
We at the Discovery Counseling Center have seen a real lack of social and emotional skills among local young people. These skills are vital for their success not just in school but in the adult life.
Among these skills we include the ability to speak up assertively about what they really believe in, the ability to calm themselves in stressful situations, and the ability to control their risky behavior so they won’t cause problems for themselves and other people.
The Intero Foundation awarded the Discovery Counseling Center $5,000 last fall to bring life skills classes to 405 Morgan Hill 6th grade students and 27 Sobrato High School students.
The Botvin Life Skills curriculum published by the National Health Promotion Associates was selected for these classes because it is a research-validated substance abuse prevention program and violence prevention program that targets the major social and psychological factors that promote the initiation of substance use and other risky behaviors.
Rather than merely teaching information about the dangers of drug abuse, Botvin Life Skills promotes healthy alternatives to risky behavior through activities designed to teach students the necessary skills to resist social and peer pressure, help students to develop greater self-esteem and self-confidence, and enable students to effectively cope with anxiety. It also helped them enhance their cognitive and behavioral competency to reduce and prevent a variety of health risk behaviors.
For 6th graders the outcomes from the life skill lessons reported a significant positive shift in attitudes. Particularly interesting is the fact that the majority of students had a high anti-smoking attitude (76 percent) before the class, but that wasn’t based on an understanding about smoking and why smoking is harmful, as illustrated by the fact that their knowledge score grew substantially from 13 percent to 67 percent. Also the Healthy Living Index, a measure of overall mental health, increased from 23 percent to 77 percent.
At Sobrato High School the Botvin Life Skills program and the Why Try program were used to teach life skills.
The outcomes from these students reported positive changes in eight knowledge or attitude areas. The anti-drug attitudes were relatively high before the program, but the anti-marijuana attitude had a significant increase from 61 to 90 percent.
Also significant was the lack of life skills students possessed to stay emotionally healthy.
Less than 20 percent of the students claimed the skill to be assertive — that is to speak up for what they need and want; to maintain a sense of self-control in stressful situations; and to calm (self-relax) themselves when stressed. These skills are essential to addressing the normal stress’s teens deal with on a daily basis, such as test taking, getting homework done, and addressing difficult social situations. Students without these skills tend to avoid tasks and situations that make them uncomfortable, including attending school. This inability to address and appropriately deal with stressful situations is a leading cause of depression in teens. Fortunately, all four life skills reported significant increases, though there is room for additional improvement.
Larry McElvain is the executive director of the Discovery Counseling Center in Morgan Hill. He wrote this column for Morgan Hill Life.
