An online life-skills course helped teenage boys put off schoolwork less
The study
Who took part
30 boys at secondary schools in Tehran, Iran, aged about 14 to 18, split into two groups of 15. They weren't picked for putting things off.
What they did
One group had 10 online sessions of an hour each on life skills. These covered knowing yourself, listening, talking with others, anger, stress, solving problems, making choices, careful thinking and feelings. The other group got nothing. One part of the paper says the sessions were in person, so it's not fully clear they were online.
What happened
At the end, boys who took the course rated themselves as putting off schoolwork less than the other boys. This allowed for where each group started. The paper's tables are garbled and its numbers don't fully add up, so we can't give reliable sizes. It's also unclear whether the two groups started out the same.
- Helped
Teenage boys who took a ten-session online life-skills course put off schoolwork less than boys who got nothing.
- Action: Solve problems step by steptested
- Action: Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywaytested
- Rule: Through an online programmeused
Small randomised trial of 30 teenage boys in Tehran · vs boys who got nothing · they rated themselves · ⚠ numbers unreliable
Source
The Effectiveness of Online Life Skills Training in Parent-Adolescent Conflicts and Adolescents’ Academic Procrastination during the Outbreak of COVID-19 (2022)
DOI: 10.61186/psj.20.3.150 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action2
Solve problems step by stepStructured problem solving: define, list options, choose, try, review.
Action2
Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywayEmotion regulation: name, accept or tolerate the feeling a task brings, then begin.
