Greater improvement in counting Stroop accuracy following a positive interpersonal and life orientation training program: a non-randomized controlled study in Taiwanese adolescents

Adolescence presents a unique developmental challenge, specifically around inhibitory control (IC), a crucial executive function that, when underdeveloped, strongly predicts negative trajectories like poor academic performance and psychopathology. Our intervention-based study, utilizing the culturally relevant, school-based life skill training, the Positive Interpersonal and Life Orientation Training (PILOT) program, targeted 678 7th-grade students over 12 months to assess its impact on IC and psychological well-being in the PILOT group (n = 404) and the control group (n = 274). Our findings were crucial: the PILOT group showed greater pre-to-post improvement in overall counting Stroop accuracy than the control group. Of the six domains of psychological well-being assessed, the two groups differed on one: self-acceptance declined in the control group but did not change in the PILOT group. Within the PILOT group, change in Stroop interference was associated with concurrent change in three well-being domains. More critically, these observed gains in IC were a significant predictor of subsequent improvements across four critical domains of well-being: Autonomy, Environmental Mastery, Purpose in Life, and Self-Acceptance. These data indicate that a school-based life skills program delivered in ordinary classrooms was accompanied by greater improvement in counting Stroop accuracy, and that its relation to self-reported psychological well-being was confined to the maintenance of self-acceptance. These data indicate that targeted life skills training may serve as a fundamental capacity underpinning broader emotional and personal growth during this critical developmental period.