A Validation Study of the Malay Version of the Job Stress Level Inventory

Job stress has been identified as one of the most widespread problems for many years. Hence, a validated and reliable instrument is very important for measuring the level of job stress among employees. About 210 secondary school teachers from 30 schools in Kota Bharu district participated in this study. The sample size was divided half into Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The instrument was answered by respondents by self-administered. Data was analyzed for EFA, CFA, internal consistency and convergent validity using STATA software version 14. The EFA resulted in reduction of items from 20 to 18, which comprised of 2 factors. Meanwhile, the CFA results exhibited that the data fitted the model very well with Chi square/df (1.488), CFI (0.944) and TLI (0.934) and RMSEA (0.069). The two factors of Job Stress Level Inventory were renamed as Job Performance and Intention to Withdraw. Overall JSLI produced very good internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.93. The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) value of JSLI is 0.51 indicate that the convergent validity is met. Two factors produced by EFA consist of 17 items were named as Behavioural Symptom and Motivational Symptom that measuring the job stress level of employee. Job Stress Level Inventory was concluded to be a reliable and validated instrument in measuring the level of job stress among school teachers and also can be used to assess the job stress level of employee from other fields of work

Circulating neonatal Nav1.5 (nNav1.5) antigen and anti-nNav1.5 antibodies as potential biomarkers for breast cancer metastasis

Neonatal Nav1.5 (nNav1.5) has been known to potentiate breast cancer (BCa) metastasis. The detection of anti-nNav1.5 antibodies (anti-nNav1.5-Ab) reflects the immunogenicity of nNav1.5. However, the presences of circulating nNav1.5 antigen and anti-nNav1.5-Ab in the context of BCa metastasis have not been explored yet. Therefore, the study has attempted to conduct such an investigation using both blood samples from 4T1 orthotopic mice and BCa patients. In the preclinical study, forty female BALB/c mice were divided into three groups: 4T1 orthotopic BCa mice (n=17), control mice (n=20) and positive control mice (n=3). After tumour development, the mice were sacrificed to obtain target organs, whole blood, and serum. Histopathology, cytokine analyses, real-time PCR, and indirect ELISA were performed. Histopathology and cytokine analyses showed the establishment of metastasis in 4T1 orthotopic mice. The concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was significantly higher in the 4T1 orthotopic mice (P<0.0001****). Circulating nNav1.5 antigen and anti-nNav1.5-Ab were detected in 4T1 orthotopic mice, using real-time PCR and indirect ELISA, respectively. Furthermore, there was an inverse relationship between anti-nNav1.5-Ab and the total metastatic foci (P=0.0485*, r=-0.7306). In the clinical study, 32 BCa patients were grouped based on their stages: early-invasive (n=15) and advanced (n=17) stages. Approximately 3 mL of blood was withdrawn, and only indirect ELISA was conducted. The clinical study showed that BCa patients of advanced-stages portrayed higher expression of anti-nNav1.5-Ab compared to early stages of BCa (P =0.0110*). In conclusion, the detection of nNav1.5 antigen and anti-nNav1.5-Ab was consistent with the presence of BCa metastasis

A multilevel analysis of individual and school level influence on job stress among secondary school teachers in Kelantan, Malaysia

Stress is known as a worldwide psychological problem. Stress that relates to the workplace is known as job stress. The teaching profession has been identified as one of the most stressful professions. Thus, the objectives of this study are to validate the instruments of Career Commitment Questionnaire (CCQ), Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (JSQ), School Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) and Job Stress Level Inventory (JSLI) using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), to determine the prevalence of job stress among secondary school teachers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan and to identify the most significant predictors at the individual level and school level on teachers’ job stress among secondary school teachers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. One thousand questionnaires were distributed to respondents from 30 secondary schools in the Kota Bharu district by using multistage stratified cluster sampling in this cross-sectional study design. Individual level variables consisted of sociodemographic factors, the history of chronic diseases which were high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes, teachers’ career commitment and the teachers’ job satisfaction. School-level variables consisted of type of school location, school size and teachers’ perception of their school environment. Validation study shows that CCQ, JSQ, SLEQ and JSLI were validated instruments. All questionnaire had fulfilled the model fitness requirements with CCQ (Chi-square:1.631, RMSEA: 0.078, CFI: 0.971 and TLI: 0.967), JSQ (Chi-square: 1.20; RMSEA:0.045; CFI:0.996; TLI:0.988), SLEQ (Chi-square:1.417; RMSEA:0.063; CFI: 0.973; TLI:0.965) and JSLI (Chi-square: 1.488, RMSEA: 0.069, CFI: 0.944 and TLI: 0.934). All questionnaires also had good reliability with Cronbach alpha value greater than 0.70. The overall response rates is 89%. The job stress prevalence of secondary school teachers in Kota Bharu District is 45%. Final model of multilevel analysis shows that age, monthly income, gender, marital status, teachers who had high blood pressure, teachers’ career commitment and the teacher’s job satisfaction had a significant influence on teacher’s job stress at the individual level while type of school location becomes the only significant predictor at school level variables that predict teachers’ job stress among secondary school teachers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. To recapitulate, this study shows the importance of using multilevel analysis to analyze nested data and shows that school characteristics also had influences on teachers’ job stress. Thus, this model is expected to make a significant contribution to the literature of teachers’ job stress in using advanced statistical analysis to analyze the data and contribute in identifying the significant predictors of teachers’ job stress at individual and school-level among secondary school teachers

Sociodemographic factors associated with job stress among secondary school teachers in Kelantan

Job stress has been identified as one of the widespread problems among school teachers (Arikewuyo, 2004). Stress response that related to the workplace is known as a job stress. The aim of this study are to determine the prevalence of job stress among secondary school teachers in Kelantan, to identify the sociodemographic factors and medical history that related to job stress. This is a preliminary result of the study. This is a cross sectional study design with 680 respondents included in the study. The sociodemographic questionnaire (gender, race, marital status, level of education, age, years of teaching and household income), medical history (hypertension, asthma, diabetes and peptic ulcer) and Teacher Stress Level Inventory (TSLI) were administered to respondents. Data were analyzed for multiple regression analysis using Stata. TSLI had a good Cronbach Alpha >7.0. The prevalence of job stress among secondary school teachers in Kota Bharu was 40.3%. Age, gender, marital status and hypertension found to had significant prediction on job stress among school teachers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan (p-value <0.001). This preliminary analysis concluded that age, gender, marital status and hypertension are significant predictors for job stress