Effects of Life Skills Training on Anxiety, Depression, and Happiness: A Case Study of Karaj Secondary Schooler's Mothers

successful learning of life skills affects the feelings of the learners towards themselves and others. It also enhances psychosocial skills such as self-esteem, assertiveness, responsibility, and interpersonal communication. Life skills help the learners face and overcome their problems and, thus, play a significant role in developing mental health. This study aims to analyze the effects of life skills training on anxiety, depression, and happiness. The population of the study consisted of mothers of all secondary-school students of district three of Karaj in the school year 2011-2012 who went to Razi Psychological Clinic Center, and 52 of them (16 anxious, 16 depressed, and 20 anxious-depressed) were selected through random clustering method to represent the sample which was later divided into a control group and three experimental groups; anxious, depressed, and anxious-depressed groups. The experimental groups received 15 sessions of life skills training, each of which lasted 60 minutes while the control group received no treatment. The research method was quasi-empirical with pre-test, post-test, and control group. Measurement tools were Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (1970), Beck Depression Inventory, (1978) and Oxford Happiness Inventory (1989) whose reliability was 0.78, 0.86 and 0.81, respectively. The results showed that life skills training reduced anxiety and depression and increased happiness in all three experimental groups.