Life Skills in School Health Promotion: Challenges and Solutions

The role and impact of life skills in school health promotion have become crucial in enabling holistic development among students. Despite its recognised importance, there remains a significant debate regarding the concept and definition of life skills within the school context. This ambiguity hinders policymakers and educators from implementing effective and consistent health promotion strategies across schools. Various educational frameworks and theories address life skills, yet a lack of alignment on their core components and applications still exists. The current discourse highlights the need for an in-depth exploration of the semantic, epistemological, and ontological dimensions contributing to this lack of consensus.

This Research Topic aims to tackle the ongoing challenges related to defining and understanding life skills within school health promotion. By deepening the current literature and engaging with health education and promotion professionals, it seeks to identify and resolve the conceptual ambiguities that hinder a unified comprehension of life skills. The ultimate objective is to propose more precise and applicable definitions and frameworks that can be embraced by health education policies and programs globally. This endeavour will provide clarity and direction for policymakers, educators, and stakeholders striving to enhance health outcomes and life skills development among students.

To gather further insights in the domain of school health promotion and life skills, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

- Examination of existing definitions and frameworks for life skills and their applicability in school settings;

- Exploration of semantic, epistemological, and ontological challenges in defining life skills;

- Analysis of the role of cultural and contextual factors involved in shaping life skills education;

- Integrating creative life skills strategies into health education curricula;

- Identifying best practices for developing life skills promotion within health-promoting schools;

- Investigations on the impact of life skills education on student health and holistic development.

Keywords: life skills education, health promotion, health education, school health promotion, public health

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.