Mapping the Landscape of Life Skills Literature in Psychology: A Bibliometric Analysis

Life skills are intrinsic characteristics that enable people to achieve success in various life domains and have assumed significance in research on applied psychology, education, sports science, and clinical intervention. This paper provides a bibliometric study of 270 articles published in English in Scopus (2015-2026) with the help of “Life Skills” search term. Bibliometric analysis included descriptive indicators, productivity/ impact analysis, citation analysis, keyword/thematic analysis, and country level collaboration in Bibliometrix (R) and VOSviewer. Results indicate consistent increase (from 9 articles in 2015 to 34 articles in 2022 and 2025), centered around sport psychology literature, including Children and Youth Services Review and Journal of Applied Sport Psychology with Camiré & Bean dominating productivity and impact. The US had more overall output (194 papers) and corresponding authorship (68 papers) whereas Canada had more overall citation impact (1,602 citations; 53.4 citations/paper) and country co-authorship centrality. This pattern is explained by the Boolean search string and lack of equal keyword tagging across different fields. Some recommendations are provided for future research on this construct.