Effects of Development Program of Life Skills on Stress Management Behavior Promotion among the Emergency Medical Technician Students of Sirindhorn College of Public Health, Khon Kaen

Abstract

Background and Objective : The behavior, emotional changes and problems of teenagers can be the cause of stress and lead to suicidal thoughts. The aim of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the effectiveness of a program of life skills which was developed to improve stress management behavior among emergency medical technician students at the Sirindhorn College of Public Health in Khon Kaen.

Method : A pretest-posttest two group design was used, and 76 student participants, who were experiencing high level of stress, were divided equally into an experimental and control groups, The experimental group attended a 12-week health education program based on the life skills program developed by the department of Mental Health and House’s social support theory. The main component activities of the intervention program were health education, VCD displays, interviews and the sharing of experiences. Social support was provided by stress management guidelines, classroom visiting by the researchers, motivational telephone calls by the researchers, and the keeping of diaries to record use of stress relief techniques. Information was collected by questionnaires, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The comparison within group means were tested by paired t-test and independent t-tests to test for the differences between group means at the 0.05 level of significance.

Results : There were eight outcome variables: knowledge of how to manage stress, creativity and critical thinking, awareness and compassion, self-esteem and social responsibility, communication and relationships, decisions and problem solving, management of emotions and stress, and stress level. At the end of the study period, the experimental group showed statistically significant improvements on all outcome measures higher than before implementation, while the controls did not improve significantly on any of the measures. The experimental group was found to be significantly superior to the controls on all outcome variables, including the stress level showed statistically significant decrease, except knowledge about stress management.

Conclusion : The program of life skill for promoting stress management behavior can positively affect the stress, stress management among emergency medical technician students.

Key Words: Life Skills, Stress, Emergency Medical Technician Students