Abstract:

Introduction:
Generic life skills such as stress management, effective communication, time management, and others, are a combination of transferable abilities and competencies that are crucial for life satisfaction. However, it is not known yet how much impact generic life skills have on academic life satisfaction in university students. The objective of this study was to analyze the association between generic life skills and academic life satisfaction among students from a public research university in the Netherlands.

Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 195 undergraduate students. An online survey was used to measure generic life skills (using 20 questions with a 7-points Likert scale) and academic life satisfaction (using 12 questions with 5-point Likert scale). The independent variable was generic life skills, a dichotomous variable which was considered high if the Likert scale score was > 117 points. The dependent variable was academic life satisfaction, a continuous variable. The covariates were age, gender, paternal and maternal education, employment status and physical activity. An ANOVA test was used to analyze whether there was difference in academic life satisfaction by each covariate. Linear regression analysis was used to investigate the influence of generic life skills on academic life satisfaction controlling for the covariates previously mentioned. The results were expressed using β coefficients, p values and 95% confidence intervals.

Results:
The average age of the participants was 21 years old (standard deviation= 3 years) and 82% were female. The percentage of participants with high generic life skills was 58%. There was a significant difference of academic life satisfaction by age (p = .033), younger students showed higher academic life satisfaction levels compared to older students. There was a significant positive association between generic life skills and academic life satisfaction (β = 1.9, p = .024). The confidence interval was consistent with participants that had higher generic life skills having between 0.3 and 3.6 points more academic life satisfaction compared to participants with lower generic life skills.

Conclusion:
Students who had higher levels of generic life skills showed higher levels of academic life satisfaction. There was a trend of decreased academic life satisfaction with age. The results of this study highlight the relevance of developing generic life skills among university students of different ages to have a positive impact on their academic life satisfaction.

Keywords:

Generic life skills, academic life satisfaction, university students, higher education.