Life Skills Needs Assessment among Iranian Immigrant Students in Malaysia

Moving on from a city to another is a stressful situation. Emigration to another country on the other hand, could be even more stressful for many reasons such as the new cultural and educational environment (1), especially for children and adolescents due to leaving a familiar environment to unfamiliar one which can seriously affect their both mental and physical health status (2). Therefore, one of the challenges for the immigrate parents to help their children to stay on correct pathways for a successful and healthy life is finding educational methods relying more on influence than control to help them adjusting their new situation (3). life skills education (LSE) is a comprehensive method focusing on the development of the skills that people normally need for healthy life such as making decisions, controlling emotions, communication , life and relationship management, self– esteem building and more (4). Indeed, just like any other program, one of the most vital components in developing a successful training plan including LSE program, to respond the special situation of Iranian emigrant children and even their families is the education need analysis (5). This phenomenology qualitative study aimed to reach a common understanding of life skills' needs for Iranian immigrant students in Malaysia from the parents' viewpoint. Fifteen mothers, aged 36-48 with different educations levels, having children aged 13-18 years old and willing to participant in the study were divided to 3 small discussion groups to discuss about study's objectives. Four of them were secondary school teachers with more than 3 years of experience working in Iranian schools in Malaysia. Data collection was done thorough field notes and focus discussion sessions ranged between 45 and 90 min, were conducted under first authors' supervision. Group discussions were continued until reaching Data Saturation. During discussion sessions, participants were asked to respond to the following questions: 1-Generally, what is the description of life skills for adolescents from your viewpoint? 2-What are the life skills needed for Iranian adolescents in Malaysia referring to all differences between Iran and Malaysia? 3-What are the three most important life skills that we should teach them? As a result, this study developed a unique parent-centered definition of a variety of daily life skills needed for Iranian adolescents to help them thrive in their future challenges. Participants in the study reached to a single definition of life skills: 'Life skills are a variety of comprehensive skills helping us …