Youth Development Competencies as Predictors of Perceived Inter-Ethnic Tolerant Behaviors among Undergraduates

Youth are important assets for the continuous development of a nation. Therefore, many youth development programmes have been conducted to help youth to develop. Positive youth development, an approach that emphasizes the positive aspects of youth development is based on developing their health and physical competence, personal and social competence, cognitive and creative competence, vocational competence and citizenship competence. Having these competencies are very essential especially among youth living in a multi-ethnic society, Malaysia. Therefore, to avoid conflict, there is a need to be tolerant towards different cultural, religious practices, beliefs and ethnic differences. Despite many initiatives taken by the government to ensure such positive development among the youth, inter ethnic conflict is still an issue especially with the outbreak of the Kampung Medan incident in 2001 where most of the culprits involved were youth. Thus, the focus of this study is to identify the levels of youth development competencies among the undergraduates in Malaysia. Besides, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior the occurrence of a specific behavior of a person can be predicted with the presence of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and behavioral intentions. Incorporating both the theory of positive youth development and Theory of Planned Behavior, this study also aimed to determine the potential predictors for perceived inter ethnic tolerant behavior and to determine the level of inter-ethnic tolerance among the undergraduates. Using a self administered questionnaire, data were collected from 1086 undergraduates. Analysis was conducted to compare between undergraduates from the Public (PuIHE) and Private Institution of Higher Learning (PrIHE) and from five different programs of studies; namely, Bioscience, Social Science, Business Studies, Technical Studies and Information Technology Studies. The results indicated that students from both the institution of higher learning and across the five programs of study have the highest level of strength in vocational competence. In order to determine the predictor variables for inter ethnic tolerant behavior, a four predictors multiple linear regression model was used. The findings of this study indicated that there was a difference in prediction variables for inter-ethnic tolerant behavior between the PuIHE and PrIHE undergraduates. The results also indicated that not all the youth development competencies explained significantly to inter ethnic tolerant behavior (IETB) among students from the different programs of studies. However, among all the four youth development competencies, cognitive competence was the strongest estimator of inter ethnic tolerant behavior for the four out of five different programs of study. Overall, the model developed for this study based on the two main theories; youth development competencies and Theory of Planned Behavior on the prediction of behavior, was able to explain the gap in predicting inter ethnic tolerant behaviors among the youth

Self-Esteem, Emotional Maturity and Self Efficacy Of Youth Participating in Theathre Performance

Youth are important assets for the continuous development of the nation. Youth are also in a critical stage for development. Therefore, many youth development programmes have been conducted to help youth to develop and equip them with the necessary attitudes, knowledge and skills to enable them to meet the future challenges and become indispensable leaders of tomorrow. A major developmental task during youth is the creation of a sense of identity. Theatre is one of the most common developmental programme used in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia because through performing, the youth are able to project a new identity and discover themselves (Courtney, 1980). However, in Malaysia, theatre has not been embarked forcefully as a developmental programme for the youth. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine whether theatre will be suitable in youth identity development programme in Malaysia. This study determine the effects of theatre performance towards the identity development of the youth; specifically the development of self-esteem, emotional'matbr&y. and-. : , * ' . self-efficacy. Six selected elements of theatre performance were also used to determine their influence towards the development of these three identities. The respondents for this study comprised of all the diploma students majoring in theatre from year one right up to the final year of two higher learning institutions in Malaysia. The number of respondents responded to the self-administered questionnaires were 109. The findings show that majority of the respondents have a high level of self-esteem and self-efficacy. The findings also show that majority of the respondents have a moderate level of emotional maturity but the overall respondents' emotional maturity can be considered high as almost half of the respondents reported to have a high level of emotional maturity. The other findings of this study show that theatre performance had equal influence towards the development of self-esteem, emotional maturity and self-efficacy. Among the six elements of theatre performance, role-playing, improvisation and characterization have the greatest influenced towards the development of the respondents' self-esteem, emotional maturity and self-efficacy. These findings imply that theatre performance is a suitable youth identity development programme as it helps to develop the youths' inner resources, identity, positive attitude and meet the basic needs for youth to be competent. The study recommended that theatre to be incorporated as one of the youth identity development programme in Malaysia, to give greater emphasis and to incorporate the three most influential theatre performance elements; role-playing, improvisation and characterization into other youth development programmes and to incorporate theatre into the academic curriculum in school

Notions of Identities in the Eyes of Malaysian Children

After 50 years of independence recently there has been much discussion on national unity and integration in multilingual and multiracial Malaysia. Unfortunately, although we have just celebrated our 53rd year of independence, the young especially are still separated by race and religion. The existence of Chinese and Indian medium schools alongside national schools at the primary level creates a situation in which students attending these separate type of schools would have little chances of interacting with each other. For example, Chinese students who largely attend Chinese medium schools (SJKC) would not have much chance to mingle with Malay and Indian students until they reached secondary school

News media socialisation and ethnic tolerance among Malaysian youth

Youth which make up a substantial portion of the Malaysian multiethnic population are increasing confronted with contentious interethnic relations issues. Hence, it is very pertinent to ask their level of ethnic tolerance. Strengthening ethnic tolerance among the youth involves educating them with the cultural differences and issues of interethnic relations through the mainstream news media. The fact that the youth are heavy consumer of media and the news media are important sources of information, it is also imperative to know the level of exposure and attention to news of public affairs among the youth. Drawing on the media effect assumption, it is predicted that exposure and attention to public affairs news in the mainstream news media would sensitize the youth to the complexity and challenges of living in a multiethnic, multicultural society and accordingly enhance their level of ethnic tolerance. But the relationship of exposure to public affair news in the local news media and ethnic tolerance has not been adequately studied

Self-esteem of youth participating in theatre performance: a Malaysian scenario

A major developmental task during adolescent is the development of a sense of identity. The success of this stage of development will be the basis for development in the next stage of the developmental as a youth; where the development task is to build intimate relationship. Youth with a strong sense of self-esteem will establish better relationship and greater intimacy with another person. In this aspect, theatre is identified as one of the common developmental programs used because through performing, the youth are able to project a new identity and discover themselves. The study was aimed at identifying the extent of the self-esteem development among the youth as a result of participating in theatre performances and identifying the most influential theatre performance elements that contributed to the development of self-esteem. The findings of the study indicated that youth who participated in the theatre performances had a higher level of self-esteem

Relationship of exposure to public affairs news with cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural dimensions of ethnic tolerance among Malaysian youths

This study examined the relationship and contribution of exposure to public affairs news vis-à-vis the cognitive, and attitudinal components and the behavioural component of ethnic tolerance among Malaysian youths aged between 15 to 25 years. The survey data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. A total of 2,906 youths voluntarily participated in a survey. The results of regression analyses showed that when exposed to public affairs news, the cognitive and attitudinal components of ethnic tolerance were significant predictors and accounted for 16.5% of the variance in the behavioural component of ethnic tolerance. The cognitive component of ethnic tolerance was a better predictor, followed by the attitudinal component and exposure to public affairs news

Interracial communication and perceptions of the compatibility of different races among Malay and non-Malay students in a public university in Malaysia

Drawing on contact theory and the theory of cognitive development, educators and policy makers have encouraged students of different races to intermingle. However, the benefits of such contact in a Malaysian multiracial public university in which there is no real racial majority have not been adequately assessed. This study examined the extent to which interracial communication with peers contributes towards students' perceptions of the compatibility of different races. A total of 377 students participated in this self-administered survey. The results of the stepwise regression analyses showed that the quality of the students' interracial communication with their peers (not the intensity of the interracial communication) was a significant predictor of their perceptions of the compatibility of different races. This applied to both the Malay and the non-Malay students. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed

Influence of expectation and campus racial climate on undergraduates' interracial interaction

In this study, the authors examine the influence of interracial interaction expectation and campus racial climate perception on attitudes toward interracial interaction which, in turn, influences the levels of interracial interaction among students at a multicultural university in Malaysia. Interaction across race is fundamental to students' growth and development. Responses from 193 Malay and 165 Chinese students were analysed by means of hierarchical regression. Results support the hypothesized influence of interracial interaction expectation and campus racial climate perception on attitudes toward interracial interaction for the Chinese students. For the Malay students, however, only interracial interaction expectation is significant. Attitudes toward interracial interaction, in turn, significantly predict levels of interracial interaction for both groups. The results support the hypothesized differential strength of relationships among the variables for the two racial groups. Implications for higher education are discussed

The relationship of exposure to news media with attachment to the national ethos

This study tested the assumption that national media played an important role in promoting a strong national ethos among Malaysians. As youth are heavy consumer of media and play important roles in further progressing the country economically and politically, it is very pertinent to examine the strength of the national ethos among the Malaysian youth of various ethnic groups, and the relationship between the exposure to the news media and strength of their national ethos. A total of 606 students from ten universities and colleges aged between 18 to 27 years were interviewed in a national survey using a self-administered questionnaire. Three dimensions of the national ethos emerged from the data and the students had positive perceptions toward selected characteristics of the country. However, there is a significant difference among the three ethnic groups in their degree of attachment to the three different dimensions of the national ethos. An overall exposure to the news media has a positive and significant relationship with the shared identity and future dimension, and shared history and values dimension of the national ethos

The development of a soft skill questionnaire for compulsory university courses based on blended learning

This study focuses on enrichment of soft skills elements embedded in a compulsory university course, namely, the Ethnic Relations through blended learning. A questionnaire was developed to measure the embedded soft skills elements i.e. teamwork, communication skills and problem-solving & critical thinking. A pilot study was done to test the reliability and validity of the instrument amongst first year students enrolled in the Ethnic Relations course. It also aims to measure the early stage of soft skills embedment amongst students. The questionnaire contains 5 parts, part A consist of demography information, part B on communication skills, part C on critical thinking & problem solving, part D team work skills and Part E – an open ended question on the respondents experiences and reflection. A total of 232 completed questionnaire were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22 and structure equation modelling (SEM). The findings of the study showed that the validity and reliability of the questionnaire was suitable in measuring the level of soft skills amongst the students