Teaching Coping, Social Functioning And Problem Solving Skills To High School Students Improves Grades, Social Skills And Depression

Adding an in-school cognitive-behavioral intervention program that teaches coping techniques, social functioning skills, and problem solving skills, improves high school students health behaviors, social skills, severe depression, and academic performance.

From the National Institute of Health, "Lifestyle intervention improves high schoolers’ health, social skills, grades:"

A teacher-delivered intervention program promoting healthy lifestyles improved health behaviors, social skills, severe depression, and academic performance in high school adolescents, a study has found. Routine integration of such programs into health education curricula in high school settings may be an effective way to prevent high-risk teen populations from becoming overweight or obese, and could lead to improved physical health, psychosocial skills, and academic outcomes, according to the study.

The study, supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), part of the National Institutes of Health, appears in the online September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. It is one of the first studies to report multiple immediate improvements that were sustained over time using a teacher-delivered, cognitive-behavioral skills-building intervention program incorporated into a high school health education class. Cognitive-behavioral skills training teaches coping techniques, social functioning skills, and problem solving skills.