impact of life skills education on changing attitudes toward substance abuse and promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors in female students

Background: the increasing positive attitudes of adolescents toward substance abuse and the prevalence of addiction are alarming. objectives: the present study aimed to assess the impact of life skills education on changing attitudes toward substance abuse and promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors in females. methods: this study was conducted based on an experimental design with a control group. the statistical population included all female students in girls’ public schools in district one of tehran in the academic year 2020-2021. a total of 100 students were selected via the purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups (n=50 in each group). the intervention group received life skills education for eight 60-minute sessions (two sessions per week), while the control group received no education. data were collected using demographic information and two questionnaires: a substance abuse attitude survey and a healthy lifestyle questionnaire. the data were analyzed in spss software (version 25) using independent t-tests, paired t-tests, and analysis of covariance. statistical significance was considered at p<0.05. results: the results demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of attitudes toward addiction and lifestyle after the study, as indicated by the independent t-test (p=0.014; p=0.001). the results of the covariance analysis between the mean scores of attitudes toward addiction and lifestyle in the study groups revealed a statistically significant difference (p<0.01). conclusion: life skills education can be effective in changing attitudes toward substance abuse and promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors in female high school students.