CBSE Class 9 Activity Manual for Teachers

CBSE Class 9 Activity Manual for Teachers. CBSE issues guidelines, guidance documents and other documents for teachers and students all round the year which helps the students for preparation of their examinations. Please refer to useful inforation issued by CBSE.

HEALTH PROMOTION

IN

ADOLESCENTS USING LIFE SKILLS APPROACH

ADOLESCENCE IN TODAY’S CONTEXT

You are teaching adolescents (10 - 19 years) who are the citizens of tomorrow. Behavioral patterns followed by a person during adolescence will last a lifetime. They will influence the health and well-being of the individual. Worldwide, in the 21st century, life is undergoing significant changes.

Among the most affected are the adolescents. The health of adolescents is strongly linked to their development. Their physical, psychological and social abilities will decide what they do, how they act and with whom they associate. Technological advances have made the world a global village. Technology has also made education and training necessary. This in turn has made the adolescents depend on their parents economically for a longer period, more than in the earlier agricultural era. At the same time, today adolescents are exposed to more information and cultural alternatives than in earlier periods. This provides the adolescent with culturally diverse choices, which cannot be easily exercised due to economic dependence. Ironically, the adolescent has to prepare for a global life of competition, comparison and independent functioning in a dependent environment.

Rapidly changing social, moral, ethical and religious values have ushered in certain ‘Life Styles” in the present society especially among the youth/adolescents. These affect their health significantly. Some of the health problems and behaviors prevalent among the adolescents are poor eating habits, poor oral hygiene, lack of rest, need for quick results, pleasure seeking behavior and stress. The ‘Unholy Triad’ sums up these - Substance Abuse, Violence and Early Sexual Experimentation. Certain in-built buffers of the society (both as support and control) are no longer available to the today’s adolescents as a norm. They are:

Extended family system.

A smaller community, which is personal and closed - example being in a village or religious community. Uniform culture - in the smaller circle of living.

Traditional ways of thinking and behavior with very little individual need to exercise choices. For the above - mentioned reasons, the stress faced by the adolescents in the current situation is enormous. This is reflected by growing suicide rates and rising crime among young persons. There is an urgent need to provide today’s youth with a set of ways and skills to deal with the demands and challenges of life. Since the ‘Individual’ rather than the ‘System’ is recognized as the basic unit of the society, it is essential and a must to help the adolescent to develop skills to handle a wide variety of choices, challenges and stressors in his/ her life and work towards better health. The values of a stable society and the family have to be replaced with the skills of the individual that would enable him/her to be stable amidst rapid transition in the environment. It is our responsibility to incorporate scientific methods to help the adolescent to develop the required skills. Life Skill Education is such a method

Please refer to the attached file.