Life skills that promote school health in adolescents: a concept analysis

Background
Life skills are essential for school health in adolescents; however, their conceptual understanding remains limited, so this concept will be explored.

Objective
To analyse the concept of "life skills that promote school health in adolescents" in the literature.

Method
Concept analysis followed the eight steps described by Walker and Avant. In the evidence synthesis, an integrative review was conducted, following the PRISMA 2020 methodological guidelines. The literature review was performed on the Web of Science platform, and in the PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect databases, for articles published between 2020 and 2024, written in Spanish or English, and including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods studies, or systematic reviews.

Results
Eighteen studies were included, from which four key attributes of life skills were identified: decision-making, effective communication, stress management, and problem solving. These skills contribute to reducing risky behaviours, improving resilience, and strengthening overall well-being.

Conclusions
Despite the limited evidence linking life skills that promote adolescent school health these can be defined as a set of essential psychosocial competencies that enable adolescents to effectively cope with health-related challenges in school and social environments. The theoretical framework for understanding life skills provided in this study can be used to develop specific educational programs and interventions for adolescents.