https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X17737682 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 1–20 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0306624X17737682 journals.sagepub.com/home/ijo Original Manuscript The Development and Evaluation of a Life Skills Programme for Young Adult Offenders Jacques Jordaan 1 , Roelf Beukes 1 , and Karel Esterhuyse 1 Abstract The purpose of this research project was to develop, implement, and evaluate a Life Skills programme for young adult male long-term offenders with the aim of improving their life skills that, in turn, could enable them to adjust more effectively in the correctional environment. Experimental research was used to investigate the effectiveness of the programme. In this study, 96 literate young adult male offenders between the ages of 21 and 25 years, with long sentences, were selected randomly. The participants were assigned randomly into an experimental and a control group. The Solomon four-group design was utilized to control for the effect of pretest sensitization. The measurements of the effectiveness of the programme were conducted before the programme commenced, directly (short term) after, 3 months (medium term) after, and 6 months (long term) after. The findings indicated that the programme had limited success in equipping the offenders with the necessary skills crucial to their survival in a correctional centre. The programme did, however, have significant effects, especially on problem solving and anger management in the short and medium term. These improvements were not long lived. Keywords life skills, programme development, young adult offenders, maximum-security correctional centre, problem solving, decision making, anger management, coping with emotions, Solomon four-group design, chess 1 University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa Corresponding Author: Jacques Jordaan, Lecturer of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of the Free State, 205 Nelson Mandela Drive, Park West, Bloemfontein 9301, South Africa. Email: jordaanj1@ufs.ac.za 737682IJO XX X 10.1177/0306624X17737682International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyJordaan et al. research-article 2017