This report deals with essential life skills for young adolescents. At present, there is a need to formally and systematically teach middle and junior high school students life skills for surviving, living with others, and succeeding in a complex society. An introductory section is followed by a discussion of early adolescent development and life skills and core elements of life skills training. Attention is then given to: (1) school-based interventions, including interpersonal problem solving, social competence training, a drug and alcohol project, linked school and community programs, and the Midwestern Prevention Project; (2) community-based interventions, including Girls Clubs of America, the Summer Training and Education Program, and the Salvation Army; and (3) promising new conceptual models, including the School Development Program, a Rochester Schools experiment, community prevention of alcohol and tobacco use, the Violence Prevention Project, and research leading to an anticipated middle-school violence prevention curriculum. The next section discusses program implementation and evaluation. Concluding remarks focus on the need for dissemination of information about effective life skills training and recommendations for implementation of preventive programs in middle schools. Sixty references are cited. (RH)