A Review on Online Focus Group Discussion during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Technology bring possibility to conduct focus group discussion (FGD) virtually, especially during COVID-19. Online FGD conducted to explore needs assessment to design an effective drug prevention program among high-risk youth. 10 Online FGD within 5 participant for each group conducted involving youths from high-risk areas. Sessions recorded with the participants' consent. Online FGD provides flexibility of time and venue, and widens the opportunity to gather more in-depth data. However, online FGD might cause the interactions less dynamic. Thus, it calls for future studies on the effectiveness of online focus group discussion as compared to the conventional face-to-face method. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Actions for a healthy university: Impact on mental and physical health in young people

University students frequently show high levels of physical inactivity as well as a sedentary lifestyle. This fact has been increased after the recent health crisis caused by the COVID-19. Physical exercise, as part of the programs of the Healthy Universities, could be a strategy to face this problem. The purpose of this pilot study was to analyze the effects of an exercise program on the level of physical activity, mental health, and body composition in sedentary university students. A longitudinal study with repeated measures was designed. 14 students were evaluated at three different moments: at the beginning of the exercise program, after program completion, and two weeks after the end of the program. The followings instruments were used: International Physical Activity Questionnaire (level of physical activity), DASS-21 questionnaire (level of stress, depression, and anxiety), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Questionnaire (quality of sleep), a body tape measure (perimeters), and a body composition monitor (weight, BMI, % fat mass and % muscle mass). After five weeks of intervention and two weeks post intervention, the levels of physical activity, mental health and quality of sleep were improved (p < .05). Regarding body composition, muscle mass was the only variable that improved after five weeks of exercise program (p = .04). The results of the present study showed that the actions of universities based on healthy training programs improve the level of physical mental health, and of students.

Psychological Well-Being of School Counsellors Model

The school counselor’s role is increasingly challenging with various demands of students’ problems and the issue of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic also affect students’ psychosocial and mental well-being. Therefore, school counselors need to equip themselves with high psychological well-being as a self-care factor to deal with burnout, instability, and work stress. This study aims to develop Psychological Well-Being Model among school counsellors. A total of 330 secondary school counsellors from four districts in Selangor were selected as the respondents using the group random sampling method. Data were collected through translated questionnaire instruments, namely Self Compassion Scale, Counselling Self Estimate Inventory, The Assessing Emotions Scale, Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale Revised, and Psychological Well Being-Ryff. Confirmation Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) show that there is a significant positive relationship between self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and the school counsellor’s psychological well-being. The findings also showed that self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional and spiritual intelligence affected 76.5% (R2 = 0.765) of variance in psychological well-being. This study is one of the earliest in presenting the school counsellor’s psychological wellbeing model who can contribute to Malaysian education. The implications of this study suggest that the elements of self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional and spiritual intelligence, and psychological well-being should be applied in the curriculum at the counsellor training level in university so that counsellors have adequate preparation in providing effective services in schools. The Ministry of Education Malaysia, on the other hand, needs to cultivate psychological well-being interventions regularly so that counsellors can always manage various students’ issues in schools as well as maintaining psychological well-being in terms of personnel and professionals. © 2022 The Author(s).