Malaysian Parents Research Articles

Knowledge, attitude, perception of Muslim parents towards vaccination in Malaysia

ABSTRACT Malaysia is a predominant Muslim country and the recent surge in vaccine-preventable disease enticed us to conduct a survey to measure the Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Muslim parents toward vaccination process. The data were collected under four segments such as demography, Knowledge, Attitude and Perception. The questionnaire had high internal consistency (0.823) for Cronbach’s alpha. The sociodemographic determinants such as marital status (OR = 1.12; 0.91–1.38;p < .05), education level (college OR = 1.35; 1.12–1.64;p < .05, secondary OR = 1.22; 1.01–1.47;p < .05) and the occupation of parents (OR = 1.25; 1.07–1.45;p < .05) were observed affecting the Knowledge score significantly. Majority of Malaysian Muslim parents believed that “vaccine is not prohibited in Islam” and most of them also rejected the belief that “all vaccines are non halal and hence should be avoided”. None of the sociodemographic determinants significantly affected the Attitude and Perception score of the Muslim parents. It was observed that the Attitude and Perception score did not establish any association with any of the socio-demographic determinants and hence the null hypothesis that Malaysian Muslim parents had positive Attitude and good Perception toward vaccination process was accepted.

Expressing breastmilk while on break and in private: a qualitative study of Malaysian first-time mothers

ABSTRACT Employment and breastfeeding among first-time mothers in Malaysia remain problematic, due, in part, to the lack of clear policies and policy implementation. This article, based on a phenomenological study utilising dyadic interviews with eight participants and twelve interviews, explores the experience of Malaysian first-time parents managing both breastfeeding and employment. The findings illustrate that although breastfeeding is considered a mother's responsibility and is regarded as the preferred and superior form of infant feeding, there is often no designated time or space for expressing milk, causing many participants to use their lunch or tea breaks for this purpose. While study participants describe themselves as feeling supported by their partners, families, colleagues, and workplace superiors to breastfeed at work, they must nonetheless manage the perceived contradiction between the lactating body and the ‘male working body’. For these participants, this entails deftly negotiating the demands of being a good mother with a successful performance of the good worker role. Future research implications include a focus on identifying the roles and possible roles of fathers in infant feeding, and guidelines around monitoring breastfeeding breaks and spaces for mothers at work.

Self-stigma and its associations with stress and quality of life among Malaysian parents of children with autism.

This study explored the relationship between self-perceived stigmatization (affiliate stigma), stress and quality of life among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants (N = 110) filled-in the Affiliate Stigma Scale, the Caregiver Burden Inventory and the CarerQOL scale. Parents reported low scores on stigma and fair levels of stress and quality of life, indicating that parents do not feel stigmatized by affiliation with a child with ASD nor are they stressed from affiliate stigma. After controlling for demographic factors, both the relationships of affiliate stigma with stress and with quality of life were weak, indicating that stigma may have little to no effect on stress and quality of life. Cultural and religious beliefs may play a part in the acceptance of a child's condition, resulting in less impact of stigma on the parents.

Awareness, perception and experience on child restraint system (CRS) and its legislation among Malaysian parents with newborns

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore parents’ awareness and usage of CRS, incentives and challenges in CRS use, as well as their perception about potential CRS legislation in Malaysia.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in a public tertiary care center in Northern Malaysia. A self-developed researcher-assisted questionnaire was developed in English and translated into Malay language, to explore parents’ awareness ad CRS usage, as well as the incentives and barriers in CRS use. Parents of a newborn were conveniently sampled, excluding parents with pre-term newborn or those without a car. Upon obtaining written informed consent, the parents were allowed to answer the questionnaire within 20 minutes, assisted by the researchers. Parents who were found not using CRS for their newborn were given a digital pamphlet with CRS-related information via mobile devices.Results: A total of 200 parents were approached and 193 of them consented to participate in this study. The majority of the parents (87.6%) were aware of CRS, but only half of them (57.0%) provided a CRS for their current newborn. From 100 CRS users, most of them used a CRS for “child’s safety” purposes (84.5%). Among 83 CRS nonuser, nearly half of them (45.8%) perceived that it is adequate to carry their child during traveling without using a CRS. When exploring previous experience in using CRS among all parents (n = 193), more than half of them (63.9%) faced difficulty as their child refused to use the CRS. More than half (54.9%) of all parents were not aware about the possible CRS legislation in Malaysia. However, the majority of them (90.7%) agreed with the implementation of CRS law.Conclusions: Although majority of the parents were aware about CRS, but only half had a CRS for their current newborn. Most of the parents supported CRS legislation in Malaysia, but assistance will be required to help them through challenges related to CRS use.

Malaysian Child Restraint Issues: A Brief Narrative Review.

The child restraint legislation in Malaysia becomes mandatory from 1 January 2020. Prior to commencement of the rule, a survey showed that only 36% of Malaysian parents were aware of the importance of a child restraint system (CRS) and only 27% usage was reported during travel. The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety report showed that children transported in private vehicles were the leading groups of casualties among children aged 1 to 4 years old (43.8%) and 5 to 9 years old (30.2%), respectively. We performed a narrative review using the PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar databases using keywords such as child restraint system, unrestrained injuries, Malaysia and epidemiology. The objectives of this review were: (1) to determine the prevalence on the use of CRS in Malaysia, (2) to evaluate the injuries related to unrestrained children and (3) to show the nation’s preparation towards implementation of the child restraint law. Six papers on prevalence, one paper on injury and six mainstream newspaper were included in this study. The prevalence of a CRS use was shown between 5% to 41.8%. In relation to injury, the only publication from this country showed that among 19 children involved in a car crash, five (26.3%) children had non-craniomaxillofacial (CMF) injuries, ten (52.6%) with CMF injuries only, two (10.5%) with both CMF and non-CMF injuries and two (10.5%) without any injury. Overall, the Injury Severity Score (ISS) range was between 0 to 13 (median, 1.00; interquartile range, 1). Preparation to comply with the best practice of the child restraint law is still ongoing, especially those addressing the issues related to the low-income parents in the country. Due to scarcity of publication and data on the CRS use and injuries related to its non-usage, it is advocated that parallel with the implementation legislation, vigorous forms of public education as well as good data management must be performed and monitored regularly by the road safety authority in this country.

Parent’s acceptance on wearable technology for children’s safety

&lt;span&gt;This paper presents a study on parent’s acceptance on wearable technology for children’s safety. Recently, there are many applications of wearable technology used in ensuring children’s safety, such as GPS tracking devices that are seen to be related to the safety of the children. However, the Malaysian parents have not been using these technologies to protect their children due to lack of knowledge on the wearable technology, non-familiarity with the devices, privacy and also security concern of data in wearable technology. Thus, the objective of the present research is to identify the significant factors that influence parents’ acceptance on wearable technology for their children’s safety and to identify the greatest influence factors for the acceptance of these wearable technologies for children’s safety. These factors are expected to bring about usefulness, ease of use, trust, privacy risk, financial risk and intention to use these technologies. As such, quantitative survey method was employed in the present study to obtain the result for the factors acceptance. The analysis and findings were done using IBM SPSS Version 25 tools via Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multiple Linear Regressions to get the result for the acceptance and to achieve the research objectives. Based on the result, it is discovered that the factors significant to intention to use of the wearable technology are perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and trust while privacy and financial risk are factors seen to be non-significant to intention to use the wearable technology. Lastly, trust is discovered to be the greatest factor influencing parents to accept wearable technology and intention to use the technology. However, it is recommended for further study to employ experimental method in carrying out the research in order to get the real trust feeling of intention to use the wearable technology.&lt;/span&gt;

The role of parents in providing sexuality education to their children

Background: Parents have an important role in delivering sexuality education to their children. However, Asian parents are reluctant to discuss sexual matters with their children owing to the sensitivity of the topic and their lack of sexual health knowledge. This study aimed to examine Malaysian parents’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices in providing sexuality education to their children. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was used to conduct this cross-sectional study featuring 200 Malaysian parents. Descriptive and univariate analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Study (SPSS) version 23.0. Results: Among the majority (79.5%) of the parents having good knowledge, 82% agreed that sexuality information helps their children recognize and avoid sexual abuse. Most (91%) of them perceived that they have good practices in providing sexuality education to their children. There is no association between the parents’ gender and their knowledge of sexuality education. However, there are no links between age groups, educational level, and the parents’ knowledge of sexuality education. Conclusion: Malaysian parents believe that sexuality education should be provided by the parents to their children at an early age. Hence, a comprehensive sexuality education program for parents consisting of sufficient information, motivation, and strategies, is needed to develop children’s sexual literacy.

Validation study of the Parent Attitudes About Childhood Vaccines (PACV) questionnaire: the Malay version

ABSTRACT Vaccine hesitant parents are linked with re-emergence of vaccine preventable diseases, but evidence is scarce locally. The Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) questionnaire was validated and used in the USA to identify vaccine hesitant parents. This study aimed to adapt and translate the 15-item PACV questionnaire from English into the Malay language, and to examine its validity and reliability. The sample population was parents of children aged 0–24 months, recruited at an urban government health clinic between November 2016-June 2017. During content validation, two items from the “Behavior” subdomain were identified as items with formative scale and excluded from exploratory factor analysis (EFA) but retained as part of demography. A total of 151 parents completed the questionnaire with response rate of 93.3%. Test-retest reliability was tested in 25 respondents four weeks later and the intra-class correlation was between 0.53 and 1.00. EFA of the 13 items showed possibility of two to four factor domains, but three domains were most conceptually equivalent. Two of the domains were similar to the original and one factor was identified de novo. One item was deleted due to poor factor loading of < 0.3. Therefore, the validated final PACV-Malay consisted of 12 items framed within three-factor domains. The PACV-Malay was reliable with total Cronbach alpha of 0.77. In conclusion, the PACV-Malay is a valid and reliable tool which can be used to identify vaccine hesitant parents in Malaysia. Confirmatory factor analysis and predictive validity are recommended for future studies.

Tertiary Education Saving Patterns among Malaysian Parents

While tertiary education provides many benefits to the individual, the community and the nation, we cannot deny that the cost is high and continues to rise each year. The younger generation have to take up loans to finance their study costs and then they have to pay back the loans after completing their studies. As such, the funds from the parents can be seen as an alternative which could help in realizing the tertiary education goal. The question is, do the parents realize and know the importance of tertiary education savings? Have they saved for their children’s education? How much do they save per month? Are the savings enough for their children’s university education? What is the savings medium utilized to make savings? Therefore, this paper focuses on two main objectives. The first objective is to identify the patterns of children's tertiary education savings among parents in Malaysia and the second objective is to determine the medium of saving used by parents to save their money. The findings indicated that all the respondents knew and realized the importance of tertiary education savings for their children or those under their care. The majority of parents in the low income and high-income groups did not make any savings while those in the medium income group did save with a mean amount of RM755 per month. Additionally, all respondents who had saved for tertiary education agreed that their funds would not be enough to cover all the expenses. Some savings mediums had been utilized for the tertiary education fund such as banks, Tabung Haji and Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB) and others. To encourage the saving habit, all parties including parents, the government, banks and others should play their part so that the children’s tertiary education process would be a smooth, fuss-free journey.

Scrutinising the Socio-Demographic Pattern of Parenting Practices and Parenting Styles in Upholding Child’s Protection and Privacy to Address Paedophilia Issue

Paedophilia issue has become a global issue around the world, including Malaysia. In today’s era of globalisation and modernisation, the seriousness of paedophilia issue is undeniable. As the closest persons to children, parents have been recognised as the critical actor that contributes to children’s protection and security. However, research related to “parenting practices” and “parenting styles” specifically to address the paedophilia issue remains limited in Malaysian context. Thus, a doctoral research, conducted by one of the authors, aimed to fill the gap. Based on the findings, this paper presents the socio-demographic and sociocultural pattern of Malaysian parents in upholding child protection and privacy to prevent paedophilia issue. A survey involving 900 parents representing the equal number of genders (male and female) and ethnicities (Malays, Chinese and Indian) was undertaken. Based on the statistical analysis, there were two key findings highlighted in this paper, which were: (1) the socio-demographic pattern revealed that female parents have higher interest in upholding the child protection and privacy, as compared to male parents; and (2) the socio-cultural pattern showed that Indian parents have high commitment in upholding the child protection and privacy, followed by Malay and Chinese parents. Although every parent has different approaches in upholding their children’s protection and privacy; however, this paper argued that the socio-demographic and socio-cultural aspects are among the main indicators influencing parenting practices and parenting styles in Malaysia.

Study of unattended child presence detection system for ASEAN NCAP safety rating

Cases regarding children death due to the entrapment in the vehicles during hot weather is increased. Our research aims are to study the opinions amongst parents regarding the safety awareness on the child safety in the vehicles and to investigate the preferred operations of child presence detection system in the vehicles. A quantitative research was carried out with surveys of audience awareness while driving with children inside vehicles and the preferred operating child presence detection system in the vehicles. Results found that many parents in Malaysia are aware of the need of the safety for their children because most of the parents are aware to prepare the child seat in the car. They also alert with the safety measurement taken while carrying the children in the car and proposed to all parents in Malaysia to have children car seat in the car. The survey results also found that the majority of the parents preferred to have better sound indicator for child detection system in the vehicles from the car reminder system. Based on the information obtained, 70% of the parents also are willing to pay higher priced for the child detection system in the car because they believed that leaving their children in the car for more than 30 minutes can caused death. Therefore, child presence detection system should be design and applied to all vehicles in Malaysia by applying a smart reminder system while considering the affordable price for the market.

Challenges Faced by Malaysian Parents in Caregiving of a Child with Disabilities

Objective - Caregiving of a child with special needs can increase the cost of raising the child and parent’s stress. These two issues are commonly experienced by a parent who care for their special needs child themselves and the thought of challenges are different based on the disability of the child. Methodology/Technique – The challenges of raising a child with disability make it necessary for parents to work harder to to meet the cost of treatment. Meanwhile, levels of stress among those parents are understandably increased. Finding – Parents caring for a child with disability need to place greater emphasis on achieving a balance between their work, caring for their child and stress. Further, this paper includes a discussion on the cost of raising a disabled child and the increased levels of stress experienced by these parents. Novelty - The findings of this paper contribute to conceptual model on the challenges faced by Malaysian parents in caregiving for a child with special needs. Type of Paper: Review

The Relationship Between Psychological Distress and Religious Practices and Coping in Malaysian Parents of Children with Thalassemia

Study purposeThis study was conducted to examine the relationship between religious practice, religious coping methods and psychological distress among parents caring for children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia. Design and methodsThis is a cross-sectional survey. Data were collected on 162 parents of children diagnosed with thalassemia aged 12 years and younger in thalassemia day care centers of three public hospitals in Sabah, Malaysia. Data were collected using questionnaires, including General Health Questionaire-12 (GHQ-12), Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) and Brief RCOPE. ResultsForty-two percent of parents had psychological distress with GHQ score ≥ 3 (mean score of 2.85 ± 3.17). Ninety-five percent of parents used positive religious coping methods (mean P-COPE score 22.35 ± 2.33) more than negative religious coping methods (mean N-COPE score was 12.19 ± 5.23). They used Organized Religious Activities (mean ORA score of 4.20 ± 1.27), and Non-Organized Religious Activities (NORA, the mean was 4.17 ± 1.37). Positive and negative religious coping methods were significantly related to parents' psychological distress (P-COPE and GHQ-12 scores (rs (df) = 0.19, p < .05; N-COPE and GHQ-12 scores rs (df) = 0.38, p < .001)). ConclusionThe study findings showed the parents experienced psychological distress. They used positive religious coping methods more than negative religious coping methods. Psychological distress was significantly related to organized religious activities, non-organized religious activities and positive and negative religious coping methods. Practice implicationThe study findings facilitate understanding of psychological distress and how parents use religious coping strategies to deal with the stress caring for their child.

Exploring Middle-Class Malaysian Parents' Perceptions and Concerns About Children's Internet Usage

The growing number of children internet users are causing parents to worry. While there are many researches in the Global North, very few studies are done in the Global South. The study aims to bridge this gap with a study of Malaysia, a Global South country. Using a contextual approach, this research investigates middle-class Malaysian parents’ perceptions and concerns about their children’s internet usage. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with seven parents, whose children – aged from five to eighteen – are active internet users. The analysis of the interviews revealed three major themes; firstly, parents make evaluative judgments about internet contents and platforms; secondly, children’s age determines use and device ownership; and thirdly, Malaysian parents used mediation strategies unique to Malaysia: they employ spies among their children and enlist help from older children. The analysis further revealed two generalized Malaysian parents’ fears about the internet: foreign culture influencing the dominant culture and apprehensions about new technologies.

Improving awareness, knowledge, and attitude among Malaysian parents of children with epilepsy using an Interactive Animated Epilepsy Education Programme (IAEEP)

BackgroundAn information technology (IT)-based epilepsy educational program, the Interactive Animated Epilepsy Education Programme (IAEEP), can potentially help improve awareness, knowledge, and attitude (AKA) of parents of children with epilepsy (CWE) enabling CWE to lead a normal life. Our study aimed to assess the following: i) baseline level of epilepsy AKA of Malaysian parents of CWE and explore potential characteristics associated with low levels of AKA; ii) effectiveness of the IAEEP in improving parental AKA, and whether these effects remained stable over time; and iii) effects of the IAEEP on parental mental state and perception of their child's quality of life. MethodsThis prospective study includes parents of CWE aged 8–18 years old with no comorbidities. Epilepsy education was delivered using the IAEEP. Parents completed an AKA questionnaire before (time point 1 [TP1]), immediately after (TP2), and 4–6 months (TP3) after the provision of IAEEP. Parent proxy report of Health-Related Quality of Life Measurement for Children with Epilepsy (CHEQOL)-25 questionnaire and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS)-21 questionnaire was completed at TP1 and TP3. ResultsA total of 78 parents participated in the study. At baseline (TP1), parental responses were rated as “moderate” for awareness domain, “high” for knowledge domain, “very positive” for attitude domain, and “good” for total AKA score domain. No epilepsy or parental characteristics were associated with the low baseline parental AKA levels. After IAEEP intervention, there was a significant increase in all AKA subdomain scores. Post-IAEEP, the AKA of parents were rated as “very high” for awareness domain, “very high” for knowledge domain, “very positive” for attitude domain, and “excellent” for total AKA domain at both TP2 and TP3. Parent proxy CHEQOL-25 report showed significant increments in interpersonal/social and secrecy scale scores between TP1 and TP3. There were no significant differences in the DASS-21 scores between TP1 and TP3. ConclusionThe IAEEP is an effective epilepsy educational tool to increase the levels of AKA among parents of CWE. Following the use of the IAEEP, parents of CWE also reported an improvement of their child's quality of life in the interpersonal/social and epilepsy secrecy CHEQOL-25 domains. There was no impact on parental mental health following exposure to the IAEEP.

Determinants of Primary School Choice in Malaysia: School Proximity and Ethnicity-Related Reasons

ABSTRACTThe study examined determinants of primary school choice among parents in Malaysia, and the decision maker and social influences in the school choice. It draws on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 43 middle-class parents from three ethnic groups (Chinese, Malay, and Indigenous). Results showed that school proximity and ethnicity-related reasons are leading factors influencing parental school choice. Medium of instruction, school academic reputation, and feeder to a preferred secondary school appear to be separate reasons but act as a proxy to ethnicity as the primary factor determining the choice of Chinese- or Malay-medium primary school by parents. The results also showed that mothers are more likely to make school choice decisions than fathers, but the reasons for school choice are similar. The primary social influences on their school choice come from friends and education personnel in preschools and schools. The Indigenous parents tend to be more subject to social pressure in making school choices than the Chinese and Malay parents, who mostly enroll their children in Chinese- and Malay-medium primary schools, respectively. However, these findings on school choice and ethnic segregation are limited to this sample and constrained by the socio-political context of the education system.

Psychometric Properties of the Intrapreneurial Self-Capital Scale in Malaysian University Students

The Intrapreneurial Self-Capital Scale (ISCS) is a 28-item measure intended to measure individual resources used to manage career and life challenges. The Intrapreneurial Self-Capital (ISC) is a higher order construct composed of seven specific constructs: core self-evaluation, hardiness, resilience, creative self-efficacy, decisiveness, goal mastery, and vigilance. In the new research area of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development, ISC constitutes a promising core of resources to face the challenges of the 21st century. The aim of the current study was to determine the factor structure and psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and concurrent validity) of a Malaysian version of ISCS among university students. The self-report questionnaire was administered to 1491 university students in Sabah, Malaysia. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed to assess the latent structure of the Malaysian ISCS. The final indices of Goodness of Fit showed satisfactory fit to the data. The Cronbach’s alpha of the Malaysian ISCS is 0.81. The Malaysian ISCS correlates with Career Adaptability r = 0.31 (p &lt; 0.01) and with Life Project Reflexivity r = 0.44 (p &lt; 0.01), thus showing an adequate concurrent validity evidence. The Malaysian ISCS provides a promising research area in psychology (both positive and sustainability). Malaysian parents, teachers and counselors can also use this tool for their development and intervention efforts.

International Parental Child Abduction in the Malaysian Legal Context: Addressing Issues and the Way Forward

The number of international parental child abduction cases is gradually increasing and the problem has now become a global phenomenon. The worrying situation is that the problem in question is extremely difficult to resolve due to conflicting substantive and procedural laws in various countries. The 1980 Child Abduction Convention is an attempt to address the problem by means of an automatic return mechanism of the abducted child to his country of habitual residence. However, a Malaysian parent would not have that privilege as Malaysia is not a party to the Convention. The primary focus of the present work is to examine whether Malaysia has adequate legal and procedural framework to address the issue of cross-border parental child abduction. The present work makes a thorough analysis of the dual legal system of Malaysia, namely both the civil law and Islamic law streams when dealing with child custody and parental child abduction and assesses in-coming and out-going international parental child abduction cases decided by the Malaysian courts. The article finds that although in the long run, Malaysia should accede to the Child Abduction Convention, there are legitimate concerns on the part of stakeholders and on the fact that the opinion on the ground is against the accession. The article concludes that in the meantime, section 52 of the Child Act 2001 should be amended to strengthen the legal regime regulating parental child abduction in Malaysia.

Mental Health Awareness of Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN); The Case Among Parents in Malaysia

Mental Health Awareness of Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN); The Case Among Parents in Malaysia

Assessment of knowledge and practices of parents regarding childhood fever management in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Nearly every child will develop a fever at some point. The challenge for parents is to know when to be concerned. This study used the parent fever management scale (PFMS) to assess the knowledge and practices of Malaysian parents regarding management of childhood fever. A community-based survey was carried out in 12 different public places. A four-part questionnaire was used to collect data from 430 parents of children aged ≤ 6 years. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine which factors might significantly predict fever burden. Usual practices targeted temperature reduction, antipyretic administration (81.4%), and temperature monitoring (86.0%). Moreover, medical advice was sought for illness symptoms (69.8%). The source of medication was either doctor prescription, leftover medicine, or a pharmacist. Parents recorded high PFMS total scores. Standard regression analysis demonstrated that ethnicity, followed by sex, accounted for the greatest variance in the PFMS total score when the variance explained by all other demographic variables in the model was controlled for. Our results revealed improper practice in managing childhood fever among parents in Malaysia and suggested that the care of febrile children was motivated by fever phobia. Parents need consistent evidence-based information about the management of childhood fever.