Dari halaman rumah ke hadapan layar: Pola bermain dan fungsinya kepada perkembangan kanak-kanak

Children are the asset of a family. They are also considered as an important asset to a country because they are considered as future leaders. Thus, children should not only be intelligent but also possess particular skills. One of the ways to develop the particular skills is through play activities. Unfortunately, recently, group play patterns in the lawn, in particular has changed to individual play which takes place in front of the televisyen screen or computer within the household or in separate rooms. This practice definitely has left an important influence to the children’s development. This study was carried out in 2007. Therefore, this article discusses the issues relating to the patterns and functions of play from the past until recently on children’s development. The issue raised in this paper is to discuss on the existing causes of changes. What are the implications on the existing changes towards the development and well being of children? How can the changes be handled? What is the function of the family, community and country in dealing with the related issue? This article is based on secondary data from library research were analyzed inductively. Findings indicated that generally, play is crucial for children’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. Conversely, the change in the play pattern which specifically involves video and computer screens gives a different implication. Positive and negative implications depended on the type of software used. Screen play in the form of aggression is related to negative behavior, whereas educational play is related to positive implication. Consequently, the role of adults is to monitor children’s play activitie

Malaysian professionals' beliefs in child sexual abuse disclosure

This study explores factors that influence professionals' belief on child victim's disclosure of sexual abuse. This study was conducted on 18 professionals who worked with child sexual abuse (CSA) cases included counsellors, medical social workers, social workers and police officers. Findings indicate that factors such as victim's age, trauma symptoms, delay disclosures, signs of abuse and corroborate information from others (e.g. family members, schoolmates, friends, teachers) were all influenced professionals beliefs on victim's disclosure. The results also indicate the presence of CSA myths were evident among professionals. This suggests the importance of disseminating accurate information. As such, incorrect beliefs may influence professionals' perceptions and responses to victims' disclosure

Lifestyle factors and possible recovery among lesbians: a case study

The homosexual lifestyle phenomenon is spreading amongst Malaysians. This study focus on one of this alternative lifestyle, which is lesbianism among teenagers. A total of six respondents were involve in this study and all of them is Malay and Islam. The purpose of this study is to find out the factor and the lifestyle and the possibility of returning to normal for these people. For this study, researchers utilized the method of interview and to acquire the samples, researchers used the convenient and snowball technique. The result of this study finds that spiritual factor is a dominant factor that influences teenagers to be involved in lesbianism when all subjects reported that they are very weak in spiritual practice. Other than that, family, peers and same-sex spouse that understands each other also plays a part. All subjects reported that they have the desire to return to normal, but they did not took any duly initiative in their effort. Their lifestyle also shows that they are contented, live together, feels accepted and have good relationship with the lesbian community, and does not care about criticisms from societies. Because of that, this lower the possibility of them returning to normal

Psychological outcomes of family caregivers of mental illness patients

Previous research shows considerable variability in the impact of caring on family caregivers of mental illness but the multidimensional experience of caring remains unexplained. The study aimed to identify family experiences of caring in a developing country. There were 154 family caregivers recruited for the survey. In addition, twenty-four respondents participated in semi-structured interviews about their personal caring experiences. This study found that majority of caregivers was women and aged less than 60 years. More than half of the participants were found to be psychologically distressed. Consistent with the stress-coping model, only caregivers' negative appraisal was a strong predictor of psychological distress and accounted for a substantial proportion of its variance. Positive appraisal, ethnicity and residential area did not predict psychological distress. Interview findings related to the coping styles and social supports of the family caregivers. The implications for mental health services are that many of the caregivers need help in their own right. Not only the person with mental illness who should be targeted for evaluation but the differences in caregivers' appraisal on their caring role taken into consideration

Psychosocial reactions of injecting drug users'(IDU) towards needle syringe exchange program in Malaysia

Needle and Syringe Exchange Program (NSEP) had been a hot topic since it was introduced in Malaysia, especially looking at it in the context of an Islamic country. This qualitative research was exploratory oriented. It investigated the Injecting Drug Users' (IDU) psychosocial reaction towards NSEP. In-depth interviews using semi-structured questions were conducted on 13 injecting drug users at One Stop Centre IKHLAS, Kuala Lumpur. Generally, the respondents had positive views on NSEP. They perceived NSEP as a social agent which (1) promoted the usage of sterilized needles, (2) changed their way of access to sterilized needles, (3) saved IDUs expenses and (4) made innovative effort in reducing HIV/AIDS infection in Malaysia. In order to make NSEP a success in changing IDUs behavior and reduced the spread of HIV/AIDS, this program had to be sustained and its services had to be upgraded in attracting more IDUs to join the program