Measuring the ABC of life skills: life skills scale revision and standardisation for adult population

ABSTRACTThe present paper aimed to develop and standardise a scale for assessing life skills in adults as per a ten-factor model given by World Health Organization (WHO), which was accomplished by revising a pre-existing 100-item life skills scale for adolescents. The objective was met in three consecutive studies. A revised 19-items life skills scale with a three-factor affective-behavioural-cognitive model (LS-ABC scale) was obtained in study 1 conducted on 311 adults. This model was re-verified on a new sample of 336 adults in study 2, which re-affirmed the results of study 1. Construct validity of the LS-ABC scale was established in study 3, where different established questionnaires along with LS-ABC scale were administered to 182 healthy adults and 34 adults with mental health issues. The final LS-ABC scale was found to be psychometrically sound and a reliable measure for assessing life skills in adult population.KEYWORDS: Life skillsadultsscale constructionaffectivebehaviouralcognitive AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to express their gratitude to Dr Lata Dyaram from IIT Chennai and Dr Pooja Purang from IIT Mumbai for their valuable guidance during the initial phase of the study, to the anonymous reviewers for their encouraging and insightful feedbacks, and to the first author's brother Abhishek Kamble for preparing the website for data collection in study 2.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementThe data that support the findings of this study are available on Figshare (https://figshare.com/s/53345aed304db532cfbf).Additional informationNotes on contributorsHeena KambleHeena Kamble is a PhD in Psychology from Department of Applied Psychology and Counselling Centre, University of Mumbai, India. She came up with this scale as a part of her PhD thesis on studying the impact of long term practice of indigenous mindfulness techniques on the levels of mindfulness, life skills and work engagement in corporate managers. Her research interests include mixed methods and phenomenological research in mindfulness and contemplative traditions.Satishchandra KumarSatishchandra Kumar is the Professor and Head of Department of Applied Psychology and Counselling Centre, University of Mumbai, India. He has published many research papers in national and renowned international journals, alongwith contribution in many books. His current research interests include stress and coping, work and employee engagement, positive psychology and well-being, pandemic studies and sustainability.