Academic literature on the topic 'Adjustment (Psychology) Malaysia'

Background Universities around the world, including Malaysia, have attracted many international students from different countries. Research has reported that acculturative stress resulting from international students’ attempts to adjust to the cultures of host countries is one of the most challenging issues that affects their lives in general and academic lives in particular. Objective This study aims to examine the effectiveness of an educational intervention on acculturative stress among new postgraduate international students joining Malaysian public universities. Methods A cluster randomized controlled trial design with Malaysian public universities as the unit of randomization will be used in this study. Public universities will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to be either in the intervention (educational program) or control group (waiting list). Participants in the intervention group will receive 7 sessions in 9 hours delivered by an expert in psychology and the researcher. The control group will receive the intervention once the 3-month follow-up evaluation is completed. Results The data will be analyzed using the generalized estimation equation with a confidence interval value of 95%; significant differences between and within groups are determined as P<.05. The results of the study underlie the effectiveness of educational program in decreasing acculturative stress of new international students and enabling them to cope with a new environment. The results of this study will contribute to previous knowledge of acculturative stress, acculturation, and adjustment of international students. Furthermore, such results are expected to play a role in raising university policy makers’ awareness of their postgraduate international students’ acculturative stress issues and how they can help them avoid such stress and perform well in their academic life. Conclusions We expect that the intervention group will score significantly lower than the wait-list group on the immediate and 3-month postintervention evaluation of acculturative stress and achieve a higher level of adjustment. Results will have implications for international students, policy makers at universities, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, and future research. Trial Registration Clinical Trials Registry India CTRI/2018/01/011223; http://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/showallp.php?mid1= 21978&amp;EncHid=&amp;userName=Muhamad%20Hanafiah%20Juni International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/12950

Abstract Institute of International Education (Open doors report on international educational exchange: International student enrollment trends, 1948/49–2017/18) data indicated that during the 2017–2018 academic year, 1,094,792 international students were studying at a college or university in the United States, of which 62% came from Asian countries such as China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Recognizing the importance of a diverse student body, universities have developed programs to assist international students in adapting to the U.S. culture and education system. Music therapy programs, particularly at the graduate level, continue to attract students from Asian countries, although the exact number of students is unknown. Furthermore, little is known about the extent to which music therapy programs provide support for Asian international students, or how Asian international students themselves adjust to, and experience, the first few years of their academic training. Within this context, the purpose of this study was to interview Asian international students studying in graduate music therapy programs in order to understand their experiences during their first 3 years in the United States, particularly the cultural and educational challenges they encountered. Six students and five new professionals were interviewed, with interview transcripts analyzed using methods consistent with qualitative content analysis. Results indicated that almost all the Asian international students interviewed experienced challenges associated with cultural and academic adjustment. Recommendations for students and educators suggest ways to support Asian students as they adapt and integrate into U.S. cultural and academic environments.

Abstract. Smartphones and the internet have indeed revolutionized our lives in innumerable ways, among them the emergence of a social phenomenon called ‘phubbing.’ Phubbing is a portmanteau combining the words “phone” and “snubbing”. A person engaging in “phubbing” interacts obsessively with his/her phone rather than communicating with nearby people. Partner phubbing (Pphubbing) is defined as phubbing behaviour when in the presence of one’s spouse or significant other. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between Pphubbing and marital quality, and to investigate the moderating role of gender and age in this relationship. The participants in the survey were 390 married adults living in Kuala Lumpur. The respondents were selected randomly and volunteered to answer a series of questionnaires made up of the Partner Phubbing Scale, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and a section on demographic data. Results showed that Pphubbing behaviour has a significant negative relationship with marital quality. Moreover, gender and age were found to have significant moderating effects on the relationship between Pphubbing and marital quality. The reported impact of Pphubbing on marital quality was stronger among females than males, and the effects were also stronger among younger adults. These findings may have implications for family and couple counselling and for the coaching profession. Future research should be done to address this phenomenon more thoroughly. Keywords: interpersonal communication; marital quality; partner phubbing; phubbing; relationship

This research are discusses the effectiveness of the Psynnova i-Behavior Modification Technique module on the behavioral change of low performing civil servants in Malaysia. The low-performing staffs are those who scored below 60% on Annual Performance Assessment Report (LNPT) in 2015. The Public Service Department (PSD) has created a program called IBMT Psynnova Program for 5 days 4 nights for those who have gone through the selection phases that is having been through counseling sessions and showed no changes, thus sent for this program. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a module called Psynnova Module on behavioral change through five dimensions among low-performing officers in the civil service. Additionally, the objective of this study is also to identify the five dimensional levels of cognitive and rationality, emotional stability, adaptability and alignment of behavior, social skills development as well as psycho-spiritual level improvement before and after the intervention. In addition, it determines the change of respondents through these 5 dimensions in O1 and O3. Apart from that, the planning of this study is also to look in detail to find out the behavioral change of low performing officers through the 5 dimensions found in the Psynnova Module. The five main dimensions are cognitive and rational improvement, emotional stability, behavioral adaptability and alignment, social skills development and psycho-spiritual level enhancements. It is expected that a total of 100 respondents will participate involving five ministries with the highest number of low-performing officers. This study will be conducted using quasi-experimental method of One Group Pre & Post Test using Basic Data Time Series Design. It will be conducted according to the monitoring period which is after three months interventions are carried out. The questionnaire to be used has undergone content validity sessions by the appointed experts. For all of the content validity, the results show that the value of the evaluated content validity by the appointed experts acquired a high coefficient of 0.745 with a minimum and maximum value of more than 0.75 which satisfies Content Value Ratio stated by Wilson (2012). According to Wilson, Pan, & Schumsky 2012, they use CVR = 0.75 and above, indicating that the validity acceptability is high and it can be used as each item is understood and meaningful to each subscale. Specifically, the alignment and adjustment of behaviour subscale have the highest validity of 0.804, followed by social skills development subscale: 0.796, improvement of psycho-spiritual level subscale: 0.766, cognitive and rational improvement subscale of 0.746 and lastly the emotional stability subscale: 0.742. Therefore, this study has succeeded in obtaining high validity results and can be used in the study of behavioural change of the low performing officers in the civil service. Keywords: Counseling; psychology; behavioral changes; work performance; public services, 5 dimensions, face validity, content validity

Purpose – Academic and psychological adjustment of international students is central to their success while pursuing their degrees abroad. However, acculturation stress is abundant and may pose as a challenge. Thus, in this study we examined whether social support mediates the association between acculturation stress and academic and psychological adjustment. Methodology – A cross sectional research design was employed. A total of 200 postgraduate international students from three Malaysian public universities were recruited to participate in the study. The Student Adjustment to College Questionnaire was employed to measure their academic adjustment and psychological adjustment. The Multidimensional Scale for Perceived Social Support and the Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students were used to collect data on social support and acculturation stress. Path analysis by AMOS 23 was used to test the hypothesized relationship. Findings – Results provided support for the proposed model, revealing that social support was associated with greater academic and psychological adjustment among international students. Significance – The present study has implications for university policies, counsellors, and student affairs departments on the need to take measures to facilitate healthy academic and psychological adjustment among international students.

The aims of this study were to assess the cross-cultural invariance of athletes’ self-reports of mental toughness and to introduce and illustrate the application of approximate measurement invariance using Bayesian estimation for sport and exercise psychology scholars. Athletes from Australia (n = 353, Mage = 19.13, SD = 3.27, men = 161), China (n = 254, Mage = 17.82, SD = 2.28, men = 138), and Malaysia (n = 341, Mage = 19.13, SD = 3.27, men = 200) provided a cross-sectional snapshot of their mental toughness. The cross-cultural invariance of the mental toughness inventory in terms of (a) the factor structure (configural invariance), (b) factor loadings (metric invariance), and (c) item intercepts (scalar invariance) was tested using an approximate measurement framework with Bayesian estimation. Results indicated that approximate metric and scalar invariance was established. From a methodological standpoint, this study demonstrated the usefulness and flexibility of Bayesian estimation for single-sample and multigroup analyses of measurement instruments. Substantively, the current findings suggest that the measurement of mental toughness requires cultural adjustments to better capture the contextually salient (emic) aspects of this concept.

The idea of edutainment began to become the interest of early childhood educators to make the learning process more holistic, including knowledge about how the brain works, memory, motivation, self-image, emotions, learning styles, and other learning strategies. This study aims to analyse and compare the effect of edutainment and group learning on the socio-emotional development of early childhood. This research method uses a quasi-experimental design with data collection techniques derived from the results of the pre-test and post-test on 20 children. The results of this study indicate that there are differences in the influence of edutainment learning with the control group on the social-emotional development of early childhood. Although both groups affect the socio-emotional development, edutainment learning has a better effect than the control group. For further research, it is recommended to create various types of edutainments learning to improve various aspects of children development. Keywords: Early Childhood, Edutainment Learning Model, Socio-emotional Development References: Afrianti, N. (2018). Permainan Tradisional, Alternatif Media Pengembangan Kompetensi Sosial-Emosi Anak Usia Dini [Traditional Games, Alternative Media for Early Childhood Social-Emotional Competence Development]. Cakrawala Dini: Jurnal Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.17509/cd.v5i1.10405 Alwaely, S. A., Yousif, N. B. A., & Mikhaylov, A. (2021). Emotional development in preschoolers and socialization. Early Child Development and Care, 191(16), 2484–2493. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1717480 Andri Oza, & Zaman, B. (2016). Edutainment dalam Mata Pelajaran Pendidikan Agama Islam. Mudarrisa: Jurnal Kajian Pendidikan Islam, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.18326/mdr.v8i1.117-144 Aubert, A., Molina, S., Schubert, T., & Vidu, A. (2017). Learning and inclusivity via Interactive Groups in early childhood education and care in the Hope school, Spain. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 13, 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2017.03.002 Breaux, R. P., Harvey, E. A., & Lugo-Candelas, C. I. (2016). The Role of Parent Psychopathology in Emotion Socialization. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44(4), 731–743. PubMed. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0062-3 Capurso, M., & Ragni, B. (2016). Bridge Over Troubled Water: Perspective Connections between Coping and Play in Children. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1953. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01953 Cheng, Y.-J., & Ray, D. C. (2016). Child-Centered Group Play Therapy: Impact on Social-Emotional Assets of Kindergarten Children. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 41(3), 209–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/01933922.2016.1197350 Chilingaryan, K., & Zvereva, E. (2020). Edutainment As a New Tool for Development. JAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education, 16, 9. Chiu, M. M., & Chow, B. W. Y. (2011). Classroom Discipline Across Forty-One Countries: School, Economic, and Cultural Differences. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(3), 516–533. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110381115 Chung, K. K. H., Lam, C. B., & Liew, J. (2020). Studying Children’s Social-Emotional Development in School and at Home through a Cultural Lens. Early Education and Development, 31(6), 927–929. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2020.1782860 Crescenzi-Lanna, L., & Grané-Oró, M. (2016). An Analysis of the Interaction Design of the Best Educational Apps for Children Aged Zero to Eight = Análisis del diseño interactivo de las mejores apps educativas para niños de ceroa ocho años. Creswell, J. W. (2015). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (Fifth edition). Pearson. Dandashi, A., Karkar, A. G., Saad, S., Barhoumi, Z., Al-Jaam, J., & El Saddik, A. (2015). Enhancing the Cognitive and Learning Skills of Children with Intellectual Disability through Physical Activity and Edutainment Games. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 11(6), 165165. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/165165 Denham, S. A. (2006). Social-Emotional Competence as Support for School Readiness: What Is It and How Do We Assess It? Early Education and Development, 17(1), 57–89. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15566935eed1701_4 Eurenius, E., Richter Sundberg, L., Vaezghasemi, M., Silfverdal, S.-A., Ivarsson, A., & Lindkvist, M. (2019). Social-emotional problems among three-year-olds differ based on the child’s gender and custody arrangement. Acta Paediatrica (Oslo, Norway: 1992), 108(6), 1087–1095. PubMed. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.14668 Goldschmidt, T., & Pedro, A. (2019). Early childhood socio-emotional development indicators: Pre-school teachers’ perceptions. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 29(5), 474–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2019.1665887 Guran, A.-M., Cojocar, G. S., & Dioşan, L. S. (2020). Developing smart edutainment for preschoolers: A multidisciplinary approach. Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSOFT International Workshop on Education through Advanced Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, 20–26. https://doi.org/10.1145/3412453.3423197 Halle, T. G., & Darling-Churchill, K. E. (2016). Review of measures of social and emotional development. Measuring Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood, 45, 8–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2016.02.003 Hamada, M., & Tsubaki, M. (2021). Relationship Analysis between Children Interests and Their Positive Emotions for Mobile Libraries’ Community Development in a Tsunami Area. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries, 31. Heller, S. S., Rice, J., Boothe, A., Sidell, M., Vaughn, K., Keyes, A., & Nagle, G. (2012). Social-Emotional Development, School Readiness, Teacher–Child Interactions, and Classroom Environment. Early Education & Development, 23(6), 919–944. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2011.626387 Hirsh-Pasek, K., Zosh, J. M., Golinkoff, R. M., Gray, J. H., Robb, M. B., & Kaufman, J. (2015). Putting Education in “Educational” Apps: Lessons from the Science of Learning. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(1), 3–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100615569721 Hurlock, E. B. (2001). Developmental Psychology. McGraw-Hill Education. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=DiovBU8zMA4C Maitner, A. T., Mackie, D. M., Pauketat, J. V. T., & Smith, E. R. (2017). The Impact of Culture and Identity on Emotional Reactions to Insults. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48(6), 892–913. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117701194 Marcelo, A. K., & Yates, T. M. (2014). Prospective relations among pre-schoolers’ play, coping, and adjustment as moderated by stressful events. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 35(3), 223–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2014.01.001 McClelland, M. M., & Cameron, C. E. (2011). Self-regulation and academic achievement in elementary school children. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2011(133), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.302 Mohd Yusof, A., Daniel, E. G. S., Low, W. Y., & Ab. Aziz, K. (2014). Teachers’ perception of mobile edutainment for special needs learners: The Malaysian case. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(12), 1237–1246. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2014.885595 Mok, M. M. C. (2019). Social and emotional learning. Educational Psychology, 39(9), 1115–1118. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2019.1654195 Munirah. (2018). Urgensi Pengembangan Sosial dan Emosional Anak Usia Dini. Irfani, 14(1), 19–27. Nasser, I., Miller-Idriss, C., & Alwani, A. (2019). Reconceptualizing Education Transformation in Muslim Societies: The Human Development Approach. The Journal of Education in Muslim Societies, 1(1), 3–25. JSTOR. Nikolayev, M., Reich, S. M., Muskat, T., Tadjbakhsh, N., & Callaghan, M. N. (2021). Review of feedback in edutainment games for preschoolers in the USA. Journal of Children and Media, 15(3), 358–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2020.1815227 Nurmalitasari, F. (2015). Perkembangan Sosial Emosi Pada Anak Usia Prasekolah. Psikologi UGM, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.22146/bpsi.10567 Okan, Z. (2003). Edutainment: Is learning at risk? Br. J. Educ. Technol., 34, 255–264. Pojani, D., & Rocco, R. (2020). Edutainment: Role-Playing versus Serious Gaming in Planning Education. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 0739456X2090225. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X20902251 Protassova, E. (2021). Emotional development in the educational preschool programs of Soviet and Post-Soviet Times. Russian Journal of Communication, 13(1), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2021.1884338 Purwanto, S. (2019). 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This qualitative study drew on a larger study which was to explore and understand the experiences of non-native speaker postgraduate students in writing dissertations at one university in the United Kingdom. In this qualitative study, we interviewed four international students from different countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan. We identified two main themes pertaining to the challenges in writing dissertations. The first included student-related challenges (technical writing matters, thinking in English, identifying research topics, writing literature review, lack of communicative competence and boredom) and the second focused on s-related challenges (meeting supervisor). To cope with those challenges, the participants have applied a multitude of strategies, such as self-management strategies (reading articles/books, translation strategy, key-point drafting and entertainment) and getting-help strategies (asking supervisor[s], hiring proof-readers and online proofreading service). As an implication of this study, we suggest that the postgraduate students could identify their own challenge as non-native English speakers in writing a good quality dissertation in English and find their own effective strategy to overcome it.

While there has been considerable research into adolescent attachment in Western contexts little is known about this important relationship construct and its impact on adolescent adjustment in Asian settings. This thesis explores the attachment relationships of adolescents and their association with psychological health and adjustment in Malaysian culture. Specifically, relationship specific attachments (maternal, paternal and peer) and their influences on adolescent self-esteem and depression are examined. Three studies were conducted involving two samples of school-going adolescents (13 to 17 years) randomly selected from urban and rural areas across Malaysia. Using data from the first sample (N=2040), Study 1 and 2 explore the psychometric properties of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) and evaluate a structural, meditational model of the relationships between maternal, paternal, and peer attachment and self-esteem and depression. The second sample (N=973) participated in Study 3, which explores the psychometric properties of an alternative measure of adolescent attachment relationships, the Domains of Adolescent Attachment Scale (DAAS), and evaluates a meditational model of attachment relationships and psychological health. The results of the first two studies reveal that the standard structure of the IPPA was not applicable in Malaysian adolescents. Contrary to Western findings, this study found that a different three-factor structure for the parental scales and two-factor structure for the Peer scale best fit the Malaysian data. Based on a new factor structure of the IPPA, a model of attachment relationships, self-esteem and depression was evaluated. Analysis with structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that major adjustments were required to the proposed model. An alternative measurement model was developed and evaluated which focused on common factors rather than attachment to specific figures. This measurement model resulted in an acceptable goodness-of-fit for the overall model. Findings suggest that adolescents with secure attachment relationships are psychologically healthier and that self-esteem meditates the relationship between attachment and depression. However, some paths in the model varied across age and gender with the influence of attachment relationships on self-esteem and depression appearing stronger for females and younger adolescents. Study 3 found that the DAAS had a similar factor structure to the original scale evaluated on Australian adolescents, after deleting several items from the Paternal, Maternal and Best Friend scales. SEM supported a meditational model that remained stable across age and gender of adolescents. Consistent with expectations, adolescents with secure parental attachment relationships reported higher self-esteem and fewer depressive symptoms. Interestingly, father attachment was found to have a larger influence on adolescents' psychological health than mother attachment. Contrary to expectations, best friend attachment did not show any significant influence on adolescents' psychological health. The thesis highlights the importance of secure attachment relationships for the psychological health and adjustment of Malaysian adolescents. Further, the findings implicate the important role that cultural factors may have in adolescent attachment representations. It is argued that future research should consider cultural factors when assessing attachment, particularly adolescent attachment, as findings generated in Western settings may not always translate directly to Asian contexts.

This research aims to examine the acceptability of SMP and to distinguish the adjustments which must be acquired to the system to make it worthy to users which in this case is the students. The research used a hierarchical regression for the data analysis between 220 students who stay in Universiti Malaysia Sabah Labuan International Campus (UMSLIC). Their participant is not being forced and purely voluntary. Empirical analysis via hierarchical regression confirmed that prescriptiveness, lifecycle, ease of use, usefulness and behavioural intention to adopt SMP. These empirical results give benefit for the Department of Academic Service (BPA) in UMSLIC. The department can formulate effective strategies to fulfil the demand of the student and making improvement of the system. The result of this study offer the current study towards the staff of the Department of Academic Services (BPA) that is achieved from this research is that it could help the BPA to improve and design the SMP system software.