Background Migrant children and adolescents face a significantly increased risk of mental health issues. Focusing on this population’s mental health issues is fundamental and requires more attention to detect and reduce these burdens in adulthood. Nevertheless, life skills intervention can improve mental health. Its effects on Arab migrant adolescents have not been tested. Here, an evaluation protocol of the effect of an online life skills-based intervention for improving depression, anxiety, stress, self-efficacy, and coping skills among Arab adolescents in Malaysia will be examined. Material and methods This cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) will involve 207 Arab students (14–18 years old) from 12 Arabic schools in the Klang Valley. The schools will be assigned randomly to an intervention (online life skills programme) or control group at a 1:1 ratio. The researcher will deliver eight one-hour sessions to the intervention group weekly. The control group will receive the intervention at the evaluation end. Both groups will complete assessments at baseline, and immediately and three months after the intervention. The primary outcome is anxiety, depression, and stress [Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21)]. The secondary outcomes are self-efficacy (General Self-Efficacy Scale) and coping skills (Brief COPE Inventory). Data analysis will involve the Generalised Estimation Equation with a 95% confidence interval. P < .05 will indicate significant inter- and intra-group differences. Discussion This will be the first cluster RCT of an online life skills education programme involving Arab adolescent migrants in Malaysia. The results could support programme effectiveness for improving the participants’ mental health problems (depression, anxiety, stress), increasing their self-efficacy, and enhancing their coping skills. The evidence could transform approaches for ameliorating migrant children and adolescents’ mental well-being.

Children and adolescents are at a significantly high risk of mental health problems during their lifetime, among which are depression and anxiety, which are the most common. Life skills education is one of the intervention programmes designed to improve mental wellbeing and strengthen their ability to cope with the daily stresses of life. This review aimed to identify and evaluate the effect of life skills intervention on the reduction of depression, anxiety and stress among children and adolescents. Following the Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome (PICO) model and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) 2009 checklist, eight databases (Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, Cochrane, MEDLINE, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) were systematically reviewed from 2012 to 2020. The search was limited to English papers only. It included published experimental and quasi-experimental studies addressing the effect of life skills interventions on the reduction of at least one of the following mental health disorders: depression, anxiety and stress among children and adolescents (from the age of 5 years old to 18 years old). We used the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist for experimental and quasi-experimental studies to evaluate the quality of the included studies. This study was registered in PROSPERO [CRD42021256603]. The search identified only 10 studies (three experimental and seven quasi-experimental) from 2,160 articles. The number of the participants was 6,714 aged between 10 years old and 19 years old. Three studies in this review focused on depression and anxiety, whereas one study investigated depression and the other anxiety. Three studies targeted only stress and two examined the three outcomes, namely, depression, anxiety and stress. Almost in all studies, the life skills intervention positively impacted mental disorders, considering the differences among males and females. The overall methodological quality of the findings was deemed to be moderate to high. Our results clearly indicated the advantages of life skills programmes among adolescents in different settings and contexts. Nonetheless, the results highlight some important policy implications by emphasising the crucial roles of developers and policymakers in the implementation of appropriate modules and activities. Further research examining life skills intervention with a cultural, gender perspective, age-appropriate and longterm effect is recommended.