Life Skills Education Through Curriculum Innovation: A Systematic Review of Psychosocial Frameworks, Infusion Models, and Evaluative Student Metrics

Abstract

In the contemporary globalized educational arena, equipping learners withhigher-order psychosocial competencies has emerged as an essentialprerequisite for psychological well-being, social adaptation, and vocationalperformance. This review paper presents a comprehensive systematicsynthesis of international academic literature surrounding the operationalization of Life Skills Education (LSE) through intentionalcurriculum innovation. Drawing on cognitive behavioral models, self-efficacytheories, and the World Health Organization's Core Life Skills framework, the analysis investigates how integrating personal, interpersonal, and cognitive coping strategies alters student decision-making, resilience profiles, and prosocial behaviors. The review details various integration configurations—contrasting direct stand-alone blocks, cross-curricular infusion, and experiential whole-school models—evaluating their operational efficacy and administrative viability. Concurrently, the paper critically diagnoses systemic implementation barriers, including intense pacing guide pressures from monodisciplinary state testing matrices, teacher professional development deficits, and a distinct lack of standardized qualitative evaluative instruments. The empirical findings demonstrate that well-scaffolded, cross-curricular life skills programs yield statistically significant gains in conflict resolution, emotional self-regulation, and academic adaptation. Finally, this review highlights critical research gaps concerning digital wellness tracking tools and outlines an optimized, multi-layered design model to support scalable, sustainable holistic educational governance.  KEYWORDS: Life Skills Education (LSE), Curriculum Innovation,Psychosocial Competence, Emotional Self-Regulation, Cross-CurricularInfusion, Holistic Learning.