Relationship between Life Skills Training and Retrogressive Cultural Practices among Adolescent Girls in Marie Adelaide Rescue Center, Ewuasso Oonkidong Ward, Kajiado County, Kenya

Retrogressive cultural practises are social norms that are practiced in different communities that are out dated in modern time and detrimental to the well –being of an individual. They are found among both men/boys and women/girls. In digital era retrogressive cultural practices are still existing particularly among adolescent girls/ boys in some cultures. They impact the lives negatively. This study seeks to find out the relationship between life skills training and retrogressive cultural practices especially among the adolescent girls of Ewuasso Oonkiidong, Ward, Kajiado County. The study adopted embedded concurrent mixed research design. The study equally used census to collect data from125 adolescent girls from Marie Adelaide Rescue center and purposive sampling technique to collect data from10 key informants. The study was guided by Social Cognitive Theory Bandura, (1977) complemented by Rational Emotive Behavioural theory by Ellis Beck Corey, (2013). Questionnaires and in depth interview were used as data collection instrument. The data were analyzed using correlation and themes to measure the influence of life skills on retrogressive cultural practice. The findings demonstrated that there was an inverse correlation and a significant relationship between life skills training and retrogressive cultural practices r=-116, -0.58, .595 respectively and p>0.05. The study recommends that the local government should continue with the fight against retrogressive cultural practices, schools should provide platform into different cultural practices and provide adequate time to teaching life skills to the adolescents to help them in transformation process. Community should get involved in fight against retrogressive cultural practices to enable adolescents achieve attitudinal, transformational and behavioral changes. Education policy makers to integrating transformative life skills training as compulsory in education sector.