The Effect of Life Skills Training on Attitudes towards Drug and Alcohol Abuse in Secondary School Students

Addiction negatively affects health, safety, economy, family structure, and human society. The delicate spirits of students at this age quickly become disturbed and deprive them of decision-making power. Therefore, this research aims to determine the effect of life skills training on students' attitudes toward drug and alcohol abuse. This research has an experimental pre-test and post-test design with a control group. One hundred twenty secondary school students of Mobarake City were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Sixty people participated in the experimental group and 60 in the control group. The groups were determined through random sampling. Half of the subjects were assigned to the first group (experimental group), where life skills training was provided as the independent variable. The other half of the subjects were assigned to the second group (control group) without any independent variable applied to them. The data analysis for the research study was conducted using SPSS 2021 statistical software. The analysis involved two sections: descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. a covariance statistical test was utilized as part of the inferential analysis. The hypothesis that "life skills training can change students' attitudes towards drug and alcohol abuse" has been confirmed. The analysis indicates a significant difference in students' attitudes based on the demographic characteristics of gender, age, having or not having an addicted family member, and having or not having an addicted friend. The life skills training program has effectively changed attitudes towards addiction among the male and female students in Mobarake City. Life skills training generally prevents smoking, alcoholic beverages, drug abuse, delinquency, aggression, and many other negative behaviors.