Malaysian Youth Research Articles

Malay Version of Moral Identity Scale: A Cross-Cultural Validation In Malaysian Youth

Introduction: The Moral Identity Scale (MIS) measures the construct of moral identity – internalization and symbolization. This study aims to translate and validate the original English version of MIS to the Malay language version. Methods: The 10 items of MIS (five items of symbolization and five items of internalization) were translated to the Malay language through forward and backward procedures. A total of 388 youth-aged participants were involved in this online survey. Participants’ age ranged from 18-24 years old. More than half were females. Results: The construct of moral identity was maintained with the re-modeling of internalization. The final model suggested retaining the three internalization items and five symbolization items. Discriminant validity and the construct reliability of the two factors were satisfactory (symbolization=0.81, internalization=0.69). Internal consistencies indicated acceptable Cronbach’s alpha values for both symbolization (0.85) and internalization (0.81). Test-retest Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was good and satisfactory (internalization=0.79 and symbolization=0.81). Conclusion: The Malay version of MIS is a reliable tool and free from cultural bias which is useful to be applied in a public health-related program.

Beyond Survival: Narratives of Empowerment and Childhood Agency in Malaysian Youth Literature

Beyond Survival: Narratives of Empowerment and Childhood Agency in Malaysian Youth Literature

Choosing to Become a Citizen Journalist: The Experiences of Malaysian Youth

Online citizen journalism is turning from a reader to a writer to share their opinion on some topics that occur in the media. Some even dedicate their time to writing and addressing issues as citizen journalist even though most of this group of citizen journalists are not receiving any payments for their contributions. This study thus aims to investigate the motivation that leads to Malaysia’s young citizen journalists’ decision in becoming a citizen journalist. Qualitative enquiry using a phenomenology approach was selected. An in-depth interview with 14 informants participated in in-depth interviews. Atlas.ti 8 was used to analyze data of emerging themes. Three themes associated with past experiences emerged, which are action, people and event. Findings emerged young citizen journalism in Malaysia decide to get involved in citizen journalist due to the self-esteem they develop in performing specific actions or activities, encouragements, support and nurturing from their parents and surrounding coupled with circumstances of events they encounter. This implies development of a deeper understanding of the trend of local citizen journalism by taking into account the motivation that nurtures the citizen journalist’s decision to venture in journalism practices. Thus, future actions should also be given on the aspect of teaching and educating the younger generation on journalism ethics at an early age.

Patriotism Spirit Using New Media Among Youth in Malaysia

New media plays a role by emphasizing communication channels in conveying national information to enhance the patriotism spirit. The effect will also necessarily give an evolution to the cultivating patriotism spirit among the youth. Past studies have shown that the patriotism spirit among youth is very low and loose. Based on such factors, a study on the importance of new media in cultivating patriotism spirit is implemented to identify the real factors that influence youth to be more patriotic. Four aspects that influence the cultivating patriotism spirit are studied to see its relationship and influence to the youth. Factors studied are behavior, learning process, current environment and construction of patriotism values. This study is based on quantitative study that uses survey as a data collection technique while respondents are among the youths in Malaysia selected through stratified random sampling technique. The findings of the correlation and multiple regression tests conducted found that the new media had a profound influence towards patriotism spirit among youth. Also, there is a positive relationship between the four factors studied. The behavioral factor had a very high and significant relationship with the values (p <.01, r = 0.82). Multiple regression analysis showed that the four factors influenced the cultivating patriotism spirit (p <.01, R2 = 0.73) which is 73 percent. This also has implications from the aspect of the importance of new media through the dissemination of national information to increase the spirit of youth patriotism. Keywords: New media, cultivating, patriotism, importance, youth.

INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE TRAVEL INTENTION AMONG UTAR AND UiTM UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ TRAVEL INTENTION TO SOUTH KOREA

Promoting travel destinations on social media is a common way of travel companies to promote the business as well as the company. This method attracts many youths who interested with travel to have the motivation and intention to travel to the destination. With the development of South Korean media entertainment industries, many youths ‘addicted’ in South Korean dramas, movies, and song. Social media as well as South Korean media entertainment industries lead Malaysian youths to have the intention to visit Korea. This study is to examine the effectiveness of social media apps in travel intention among Malaysian university students, and to explore the factors that lead Malaysian university students to have the motivation to travel to South Korea. Besides, to examine how social media and travel motivation influence Malaysian young adults is one of the objectives in this study as well. The significant of this study is showing the effectiveness of social media in influencing young adults in traveling. Besides, it could help the travel organizations to planning a strategy to attract young adults on social media.

The Influence of Political Socialization among Educated Youth at Universiti Putra Malaysia

This article discusses the influence of political socialization among educated youths in Malaysia, with special focus given to Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) students. The political learning process of youth groups is essential to be refined from time to time, especially in political socialization everyday defined until they reach a stage of maturity in their life. Many factors and agents are involved in the process of political socialization of an individual. Therefore, this article focuses on the factors and agents of political socialization that influence the learning process of political affairs among UPM students. This study used a quantitative approach with survey techniques using a self-administered questionnaire involving 431 educated Malay and Chinese youth for comparison in studying the influence of political socialization. This study showed that there are different variations on the influence of political socialization among Malay and Chinese youth. Each agent has its role in influencing the political socialization of the youth groups being studied. Ironically, the learning process about the political affairs of these educated youths is significantly influenced by educational and government factors and the family and peer group factors that have a strong influence, particularly in their literacy formation and political awareness.

Exploring Informal Education for Promoting Mental Health Literacy: A Study to Youth in Malaysia

Exploring Informal Education for Promoting Mental Health Literacy: A Study to Youth in Malaysia

The formation of youth entrepreneurial intention in an emerging economy: the interaction between psychological traits and socioeconomic factors

PurposeYouth entrepreneurship has been identified as a key driver in overcoming the economic crisis spurred by youth unemployment. However, the understanding of youth entrepreneurship is largely based on research in high-income countries. Furthermore, entrepreneurship studies to date are largely limited to the independent effects of individual traits on entrepreneurial intention (EI). Hence, this study aims to model the cognitive and social conditions, mediating processes and interactions to understand how youth EI can be formed and strengthened in an emerging economy.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional sample of 295 Malaysian youths participating in an online entrepreneurship program were included to assess their family socioeconomic background, individual personality traits and EI using regression, mediation and moderation models. Within the sample, 29 youths who completed the program were examined for pre- and post-training intervention differences to identify whether entrepreneurial traits can be developed.FindingsResults showed that a proactive personality or proactiveness was a key mediator in how an internal locus of control (ILOC) and self-esteem influence EI. Furthermore, ILOC and proactiveness were found to compensate for the lack of parental financial support in the formation of EI among low-income youth. Finally, there was a significant increase in proactive personality scores post-intervention, indicating that this trait can be strengthened through entrepreneurship programs.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focused on parental income as an indicator of family socioeconomic background, which may not accurately represent the diversity of the socio-ecological environment of an individual. Therefore, future research should assess the multi-dimensional indicators of socioeconomic status and their relations with psychological attributes in shaping EI. Furthermore, this study observed a small sample size for the pre- and post-intervention analysis. Hence, more studies with large sample sizes are needed to examine the impact of entrepreneurship education.Practical implicationsConsidering that entrepreneurship is envisioned as an instrument to lift youths out of poverty, this study has important implications for entrepreneurship programs that target low-income youths. The findings suggest that such programs need to first emphasize developing ILOC and proactiveness among these youths, thus enabling them to overcome various structural barriers toward entrepreneurship, as opposed to a purely knowledge-based learning approach.Social implicationsTo effectively lift youths out of poverty through entrepreneurship, policymakers and educational institutions need to first recognize that the EI of youth from varying socioeconomic backgrounds are formed differently. Hence, the approach of entrepreneurship programs catered toward youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will differ from programs catered to youths who are financially secure. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, entrepreneurship programs targeted at low-income youths must first emphasize building their mindsets of ILOC and proactivity to overcome financial challenges as opposed to focusing solely on building entrepreneurial skills and knowledge.Originality/valueThe findings offer a more holistic and nuanced view of the contingencies where the efforts of policymakers, educational institutions and practitioners are more likely to succeed in stimulating EI among youths in emerging economies. In addition, the study also bridges the gap between the theoretical understanding of EI and the practical implications of developing effective entrepreneurship programs by combining the cross-sectional analysis and pre- and post-intervention test in the same study. Importantly, the study highlighted the importance of considering youth’s socioeconomic background in the design and implementation of entrepreneurship programs.

Analysis of Malaysian Youths’ Cognizance about K-pop from a Philosophical Viewpoint

Analysis of Malaysian Youths’ Cognizance about K-pop from a Philosophical Viewpoint

Why Do Muslim Youths Participate in Environmental Volunteering?

Abstract Understanding youth environmental volunteering participation is a crucial strategy for building a citizenry that can contribute to environmental conservation efforts. Thus, this research investigated the environmental volunteering values orientation held by Malay Muslim youths in Malaysia that motivated them to engage in environmental volunteering programmes. This study started with semi-structured interviews which were then followed by a survey. The interviews were conducted with 10 participants who are environmental volunteers. Based on the interview findings, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 267 Malay Muslim environmental volunteers. The results revealed there are four values highly held by the Malay Muslim environmental volunteers that motivated them to participate in environmental volunteering, namely religious, biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic values, in that order. For this reason, there is a need to integrate religious values in environmental volunteering program to encourage communities to jointly engage in environmental conservation efforts.

Trajectories of Food Choice Motives and Weight Status of Malaysian Youths during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Stay-at-home orders have abruptly altered food purchasing behaviour, dietary habits, and food choice motives. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the trajectory of food choice motives and their associations with the weight status of Malaysian youths in the time of COVID-19. Socio-demographic information and anthropometric measurements were self-reported by the respondents, while the food choice motives were assessed using a validated 38-item food choice questionnaire (FCQ). Of the 1013 Malaysian youths, 48.6% gained weight due to the confinement, with an average weight gain of 3.90 ± 2.92 kg. On the other hand, 47.0% to 73.0% of the youths changed their food choice motives in the time of COVID-19. Of the 10 motives, convenience (48.5%) had the largest percentage increase, followed by weight control (47.0%) and health (45.3%). Moreover, the mean scores of health (t = −3.324, p = 0.001), convenience (t = −5.869, p < 0.001), weight control (t = −7.532, p < 0.001), natural content (t = −5.957, p < 0.001), ethical concern (t = −4.419, p < 0.001) and price (t = −3.737, p < 0.001) were significantly higher during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. Findings from the multinomial regression model revealed that youths highly concerned for weight control were more likely to be in the weight loss category (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.633, Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.230–2.168, p = 0.001). Conversely, those who gained weight due to the pandemic confinement highly valued natural content in foods (AOR = 0.653, CI = 0.481–0.886, p = 0.006) when making their food choices in this unprecedented pandemic. In conclusion, Malaysian youths made healthier food choices to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection.

HOUSING PREFERENCES: AN ANALYSIS OF MALAYSIAN YOUTHS

Housing preferences among Malaysian youths are an important issue because the housing unit prices nowadays are often unaffordable. Malaysian youths confront various challenges nowadays, including marriage, relocating away from home upon graduation, and finding new work opportunities. Youths have developed into the primary section of the housing market who are constantly faced with housing options and decisions. Besides, youths have different preferences for housing characteristics throughout their particular stage of life, which will significantly impact their future lives. Data was gathered from a survey questionnaire answered by 174 Shah Alam youths aged from 18 to 35. This research focuses on identifying the preferred types of houses chosen by youths, involving features such as location, housing price and type of house to live in. The results also showed that the highest-ranked preferred factors were the financial factors, followed by the neighbourhood, location, and design factors.

Information and Communication Technologies and Sustainable Livelihood Opportunities: A Study of Information Behavior Among Malaysian Youth

Information and communication technology (ICT) is a significant instrument for youth empowerment, since it allows instant interaction, thus enabling information needs and community development. This study aims to explore the cumulative knowledge on how youths use ICT as an essential part of their daily lives. A quantitative study was carried out and the data were analyzed by the structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The results confirmed that information needs and sharing have a positive influence on the sustainable livelihood of Malaysian youth. However, the findings also reveal that there was no significant relation between two of these predictors (i.e. information seeking and information source) and the sustainable livelihoods of Malaysian youth. Due to its unique perspective, this study contributes to the existing literature on youth information behavior in ICT environments.

Engaging and Sustaining the Interest of Malaysian Youth towards the Palm Oil Industry

There is no denying that palm oil industry has long been the backbone of Malaysia's economy. It is an industry that continues to be relevant in order to meet both local and global demand for edible oil and biofuel markets. The idea that the industry holds no appeal for youth is a common belief frequently shared by the youth themselves, as well as other stakeholders in agriculture. The key to engaging Malaysian youth and to increase their participation is to first understand their attitude and motivation towards the oil palm sector. This is the first step in understanding the factors underlying their motivation and gauging their level of engagement towards the sector. A set of questionnaires was distributed to 50 FELDA respondents followed by a focus group interview of 5 FELDA youth. Our qualitative data gauged the level of FELDA youth engagement through attitudinal resources while the survey measured the categorical and ordinal level of 8 industry constructs with variables such as gender, age, and education level. In general, the findings revealed insights into palm oil industry’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to positive and negative attitude, motivation, and engagement of FELDA youth towards the sector.

Sustainability of Punjabi language among Sikh youth: A Malaysian perspective

ABSTRACT Fishman's (1972) domain analysis was used to investigate the sustainability of Punjabi language among Malaysian Sikh youth in their home domain. Data were collected through survey questionnaire. The main finding indicates a shift in language choice and use according to the type of relationship with interlocutors. Punjabi is the most preferred language for communication with grandparents and parents while English is the choice with siblings. The outcome presents a threat of dominant local languages, namely Malay and English for Punjabi among Sikh youth. This calls for necessary actions to sustain the use of Punjabi in the home and religious domains.

Malaysian Youth Motivational Factors of Film-Induced Tourism for Indonesian Film

There are lots of efforts require in maintaining the sustainability of the tourism business, including promoting and marketing tourism destinations world widely. One of the alternatives recently used by the tourism industry around the world in promoting and marketing the places is through film tourism. In Indonesia, the film of Laskar Pelangi sparked the tourism industry in Indonesia. However, research on motivational factors of film-induced tourism in Indonesian film is limited. Thus, the study aims to identify the motivational factors that influence Malaysian youth to visit Indonesia after watching Indonesian films. To achieve the aim, the push and pull factors of film-induced tourism for Indonesian film have been investigated. This study using quantitative method for collecting the data and the questionnaires have been distributed to Malaysian youth who had watched Indonesian films as the target respondents. A total of 117 respondents were influenced to visit Indonesia after watching Indonesian films have participated in this research. This results show that novelty, entertainment and film location influenced Malaysian youth to visit Indonesia. The study suggests exploring other factors, such as accessibility, which could influence Malaysian youth to visit film location. Thus, this study provides a clear insight to research academic on motivational factors from Indonesian films that influence Malaysian youth to visit Indonesia. Further, it gives benefit to the tourism and film industry in Indonesia.Keywords: Film-Induced Tourism, Indonesian Film, Travel Motivation, Push and Pull Factors

COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ADDRESSING DIGITAL DIVIDE IN MALAYSIA

The recent Covid-19 pandemic outbreak has caused a significant surge in the access and use of digital technology due to the nationwide lockdowns and social distancing norms. The surged move to digitalisation during Covid-19 pandemic is a double-edge sword. Many significant benefits, such as online activities and education, have been provided by the digital transition. However, it has likewise uncoated old bruises of digital divide that are too familiar in information, management and economics research. Covid-19 pandemic has abruptly forced students and youths to engage in online schooling, studies, other virtual social interactions. In this study we address the issues of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) access and use among urban and rural youths in Malaysia, knowledge-based economy (K-economy) and the possible implications for research and practice. We argue that despite the recent Malaysia’s digital progress, the digital divide still persists in many aspects of economy. Yet, some fragments of societies are not able to transcend their limitations of lacking technological devices and skills due to socioeconomic motives. As a result of these limitations, it susceptibly affects youth education attainments, type of jobs and income generations. Therefore, introducing appropriate ICT skills and digital literacies during their lower education will give the better opportunity to them. In summary, it ascribes the inequality factors of digital divide to their motivational and usage accesses. Malaysia need to ensure the economic and potential benefits of the emergence of digital economy. The digital economy helps forwards Malaysia to achieving sustainable and productivity growth, and greater inclusivity.

Dimensions of National Ethos among Educated Youths in Malaysia

This article focuses on dimensions of national ethos among educated youths in Malaysia by developing a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model. The main objective is to evaluate national ethos dimensions and develop a CFA model of the national ethos formation. These objectives are achieved by applying four main dimensions to confirm the formation of national ethos: values, feelings and spirit, beliefs and identity dimensions. The study was conducted using a quantitative approach through survey techniques involving 431 students of Universiti Putra Malaysia, comprising 241 Malay and 190 Chinese youth groups. The data analysis used the SEM-AMOS approach to develop a CFA model of the national ethos. The results confirm national ethos of educated youth is formed through the four main dimensions measured. The CFA model has achieved a good level of compatibility based on the set indicators (CMIN = 600.947, DF = 115, CMIN / DF = 5.226, p = 0.000, SRMR = 0.0937, RMSEA = 0.099, CFI = 0.927 and PNFI = 0.771). This study implies a CFA model as a new approach in national ethos formation among educated youths in Malaysia. A future evaluation of a non-educated youth group should also be implemented to assure that this model becomes a holistic model.

ACCEPTING OTHER RELIGION AND LIVE HARMONIOUSLY: A STUDY ON MALAYSIAN YOUTH

In a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation like Malaysia, inter-ethnic harmony is seen as both an enriching society and a government obstacle. A diverse community with disparities in culture, language and religion is often viewed as difficult to control because of the many different needs, beliefs and aspirations of different communities within a multicultural society. The inter-ethnic peace and stability of Malaysia's society helping the country to prosper economically is often praised. While there is no violent confrontation between ethnic groups, as ethnic differences exist along political, socio-economic and geographical lines, a sense of national unity proves difficult to achieve. This study was conducted to analyse the involvement of Malaysian youth in the inter-ethnic unity conversation. A survey was distributed among 735 youth in Northern peninsular region of Malaysia, using indicators of social harmony index. In order to assess whether there were any variations between the three major ethnic groups on the religion acceptance. The findings showed that there were some gaps in the hunt for accepting each other believe. The discrepancies between the Malays and the Chinese were most pronounced among these activities, with the Chinese showing comparatively lower levels of acceptance compared to the Malays, and lower levels of nation unity compared to both the Malays and the Indians.

Awareness and Readiness of Malaysian University Students for Emotion Recognition System

Emotion Recognition System (ERS) identifies human emotion like happiness, sadness, anger, disgust and fear. These emotions can be detected via various modalities such as facial expression analysis, voice intonation, and physiological signals like the brain’s electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart’s electrocardiogram (ECG). The emotion recognition system allows machines to recognized human emotions and reacts to it. It offers broad areas of application, from smart home automation to entertainment recommendation system to driving assistance and to automated security system. It is a promising and interesting field to be explored especially as we are moving towards industrial revolution 5.0. Therefore, a survey was conducted on the awareness and readiness of the usage of emotion recognition system among Malaysian youths, specifically among university students. The findings are presented here. Overall, positive orientation towards the technology is observed among the participants and they are ready for its adoption