Why Skills Based Health Education?
The application of skills based health education, in particular life skills, to areas such as HIV/AIDS prevention, reproductive health, early pregnancy, violence, tobacco and substance abuse is becoming increasingly widespread. In areas such as these, individual behaviour, social and peer pressure, cultural norms and abusive relationships may all contribute to the health and lifestyle problems of children and adolescents. There is now increasing evidence that in tackling these issues and health problems, a skills based approach to health education works , and is more effective than teaching knowledge alone. There are numerous studies indicating that providing information about issues such as sex, STDs and HIV (transmission, risk factors, how to avoid infection) is necessary, but not sufficient, to lead to healthy behavioural change (Hubley, 2000). Programmes that provide accurate information, to counteract the myths and misinformation that often surround HIV/AIDS, frequently report imp
