Unconditional self-acceptance among the psychology students of University X, Malaysia: the role of mattering, perceived social support and state self-esteem

Unconditional self-acceptance (USA) is important for mental health. Studies reported that university students would develop the USA when they feel socially supported, included, and matter. Nevertheless, those factors are dependent on social feedbacks. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak is, they had to follow the social distancing protocols and interact online with each other. This change might have altered the way they perceive the social support and mattering. It is hypothesized that these alterations predicted their USA through their perceived social support (PSS) and the sense of social inclusion (state self-esteem). To test the hypothesis, 214 young adults (85 men, 129 women), aged between 18 to 25 (M=22.80, SD=1.92) were asked to complete a demographic form and the scales of each variable. Students from University X, Malaysia were chosen as the population as they studied fully online when we started this study;unfortunately, the university went back to physical study before we managed to collect our target sample size. The results of Bootstrapping with 5,000 samples and 95% confidence interval showed that state self-esteem (SSE) fully mediated the relationship between mattering and USA, while PSS did not. Therefore, the hypothesis of serial mediation was not supported. © 2023, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Resilience during the lockdown: insignificance of perceived social support

Pre-pandemic studies had established that human resilience is mainly based on the social feedback that enables the formation of one’s perceived social support (PSS). In the Malaysian context, the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO) amidst the pandemic altered the social interaction pattern. The shift had involved more dependence on online communication (i.e., social media). Therefore, the way PSS plays its role in predicting resilience could have been affected. Due to the reason mentioned above and the reports that Malaysians tend to increase their levels of spirituality during the MCO, we hypothesized that the sense of being empowered fully mediates the contribution of PSS on resilience while moderated by the levels of spirituality. Four hundred and five adults who reside in Malaysia during the MCO 2 were recruited to respond to scales of PSS, spirituality, empowerment, and resilience through the online survey. Our results suggested that the sense of empowerment significantly and fully mediated the relationship between PSS and resilience among individuals with low and moderate levels of spirituality. Scope, limitations, implications, and suggestions were also discussed at the end of this paper. © 2022, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Secure relationship does not mean satisfying relationship during the pandemic: The role of mattering and life satisfaction

Relationship satisfaction (RS) is one of the major components of mental health that is often ignored due to cultural reasons. Moreover, numerous studies had indicated that when individuals have insecure attachment styles (insecurity in loving someone else), they would never develop any RS with anyone, including friends, spouses, parents, children, and relatives. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had triggered different social patterns among individuals all over the world, and studies during the pandemic indicated the significance of some factors such as the sense of mattering and perceived life satisfaction (LS) to the mental health of the general adults. Our references led us to hypothesize that interpersonal mattering (IM) significantly predicted RS, mediated by LS, under the condition of low secure attachment style (SAS). Randomly selected 405 adults from Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia, were financially compensated to complete the scales of IM, satisfaction with life, SAS section of measure of attachment style (MOAS), and RS index. The results indicated that the mediation of LS on the link between mattering and RS was only significant when the level of SAS is at the low and moderate levels. Further implications, limitations, and suggestions are discussed. © 2022, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Studying online from home and social anxiety among university students: The role of societal and interpersonal mattering

Literature suggested that the enforcement of lockdowns such as the Movement Control Order (MCO) had limited physical social interaction and therefore increased the inclination on social media and other means of digital communication. This shift of social pattern was reported to alter the way young adults develop their mattering, the sense of how much they matter to others. While mattering has been reported as the protective factors against social anxiety, this study aims to investigate the contribution of interpersonal mattering and societal mattering on social anxiety among university students who had to study online from home during the enforcement of the MCO in Malaysia amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2021. Purposive sampling was conducted to recruit 158 participants (89 females, 69 males) with their ages ranging from 18 to 25 years of age (M=21.77, SD=1.54) to respond to Mattering to Others Questionnaire, University Mattering Scale, and Social Phobia Inventory. The results of multiple linear regression supported the hypotheses that both types of mattering negatively predict social anxiety, and that interpersonal mattering was no longer a significant predictor when controlling for societal mattering. © 2022, Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.

No more Pygmalion: Teachers’ expectations, mattering and self-efficacy in the online classroom

Studies before the outbreak reported that lecturers' and teachers’ expectancy were observable to the students from their classroom behavior and, in turn, affect the students' educational self-efficacy (ES). Our study was conducted to investigate whether the aforementioned finding still holds in the compulsory online learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online learning was not the only implication of the social distancing policy during the pandemic, any form of social interactions among university students was affected up to the point that they rely more on social media to obtain social feedback that eventually altered the way they evaluate themselves. Because this phenomenon might lead to the way students develop the sense that they matter to their society societal mattering (SM) we hypothesized that SM would be a stronger predictor of ES than the students’ perception of the educators’ expectancy. Nevertheless, the data we collected from 361 purposively recruited students from universities in Indonesia and Malaysia indicated that their perceptions of teachers’ expectancy were no longer a significant predictor of ES when the social mattering was controlled for. Further implications, limitations, and suggestions are discussed. © 2022, Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.

Satisfaction with life during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of affect balance and self-concept clarity

As one significant indicator of mental wellbeing, satisfaction with life plays important roles in the society and among individuals. Nevertheless, studies have stated that the formation of life satisfaction was different between before and during the pandemic. Among most people, the differences were caused by the implication of social distancing protocols, where people were not fully connected to one another without the help of electronic media;therefore, some of their social roles were altered or became less meaningful. Such changes affected the clarity of how individuals see themselves, as well as the balance of their negative and positive emotional experiences (affect balance). We hypothesized that self-concept clarity predicts life satisfaction through affect balance. We collected our data from 139 Malaysian adults aged between 18 to 60 years through various social media platforms to complete the self-concept clarity scale (SCCS), satisfaction with life scale (SWLS), and scale of positive and negative experience (SPANE). Results of the bootstrap analysis with a 95% confidence interval indicated that the affect balance partially mediated the relationship between self-concept clarity and life satisfaction. © 2022, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Expressive writing during the COVID-19 pandemic: themes of mixed expressive writing

In order to curb the depression levels among youth during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, we examined the recurrent themes of mixed expressive writing among undergraduates during the pandemic. Previous quantitative studies had emphasized on the effectiveness of expressive writing in reducing depressive symptoms, however, less qualitative studies were conducted in evaluating the content within people’s writings. As the pandemic had caused major disruptions among people, we implemented mixed expressive writing in capturing both positive and negative experiences during the pandemic. Ten participants were recruited to perform mixed expressive writing twice per week, for four consecutive weeks. Thematic analysis was used in analyzing their writings and forming the emerged themes. Five themes were formed, which included ‘school’, ‘relationships’, ‘reflection’, ‘work’, and “random incidents’. Future research should examine the effectiveness of expressive writing in writing specific themes on improving its respective psychological constructs. © 2022, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Social support and psychological wellbeing among urbanites during the pandemic: mattering and life satisfaction

The change of social interaction pattern amidst the implementation of social distancing policies during the pandemic had altered the way individuals evaluated themselves and their social environment, including the way they develop perceived social support (PSS) that would lead to another change in the way they develop their satisfaction with life (SWL). This might have affected the development of their psychological wellbeing (PWB), which is highly contingent upon psychosocial constructs. Another variable that might alter the formation of PWB is the sense that we matter to others (Mattering), which was also altered by the limitation of in-person interactions. We purposively recruited 403 Malaysian urban adults affected by the social distancing policies by having to study or work from home, to respond to our survey in order to test the hypothesis that the SWL would fully mediate the association between PSS and PWB among individuals with higher levels of mattering. The results of the bootstrap analysis with 5,000 samples and 95% confident interval supported our hypothesis, with a caveat that the mediation of SWL also occurred among individuals with moderate levels of mattering. PSS was still a significant predictor of PWB when controlling for mattering and SWL, which indicated that the mediation of SWL was only partially occurred. © 2022, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Post-locked down mental wellbeing among Malaysian adults: Factors of life satisfaction in urban Malaysia

Under the enforcement of the recovery movement control order (RMCO), citizens of Malaysia were allowed to commute for work with tight protocols of social distancing. In this period of time, most individuals were adjusting to the new norm after being locked down for about six weeks. With an assumption that the social dynamics could have been different from the pre-pandemic era, this study aims to investigate how mattering predicts life satisfaction among individuals who live in the urban area of western Malaysia in the aforementioned timeframe. The role of other variables, namely perceived social support (PSS), resilience, and spirituality was also investigated. Data was collected from 402 adults between 18 and 66 years of age (M=25.44) who reside in the urban areas of Malaysia. A moderated serial mediation hypothesis was tested by employing the Bootstrap method in PROCESS Macro model 92. Our findings suggested that resilience does not play a significant role in the equation due to its insignificance in predicting life satisfaction after controlling the rest of the variables. © 2022, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of working from home among urban professionals in Malaysia during the pandemic: The robust predictive role of mattering

Past studies suggested that the sense of mattering tend to be a robust predictor of work self-efficacy, even when controlling for strong variables such as state self-esteem. This current study aimed to investigate whether the aforementioned suggested still holds among working adults who had to work from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia, where the government enforced movement control order (MCO), a semi-quarantine policy where individuals can only travel within 10 kilometer radius of their respective homes. We hypothesized that the state self-esteem will fully mediate the link between mattering and work self-efficacy during the period of WFH, and that trait extraversion will moderate the mediation. In the 5th week of the MCO, our data was gathered from 109 urban working adults in Malaysia who had to WFH by employing General Mattering Scale, State Self-Esteem Scale, Remote Work Self Efficacy Measure, and the extraversion facet in Big Five Inventory. The result of bootstrap analyses with 5000 samples using PROCESS Macro Model 8 suggested that state self-esteem mediated partially mediated the association of mattering and work self-efficacy among individuals at all levels of extraversion. Discussion, limitations and suggestions are provided in the end of the paper. © 2021, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan - Faculty of Publich Health. All rights reserved.

Mattering and life satisfaction among the quarantined adults in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study aims to investigate the role of mattering, trait extraversion and perceived social inclusion in developing the sense of life satisfaction among adults who reside in Malaysia during the quarantine period amidst the Pandemic in March-June 2020. Previous studies indicated that mattering was a robust predictor of life satisfaction;however, the nature of the quarantine might have affected the perception of social inclusion among individuals with certain levels of extraversions. Therefore, we hypothesized a moderated mediation model;mattering will interact with trait extraversion in predicting life satisfaction, and the prediction is mediated by perceived inclusion. Three hundred and ninety participants were voluntarily recruited to respond to scales such as Life Satisfaction Inventory, State Self-Esteem Scale, General Mattering Scale and the extraversion facet in Big Five Inventory. The scales, demography questions, and informed consent were accessible by online link given to the participants through social media. The analysis was conducted by using PROCESS Macro model eight for statistical product and service solutions (SPSS) applying the Bootstrap analysis with 5000 samples and 95% confidence interval. The result suggested that the hypothesis was confirmed;perceived inclusion levels significantly mediated the association between mattering and life satisfaction among individuals with low and moderate levels of extraversion. However, full mediation only applied among the individuals with moderate extraversion, because among those with low extraversion, mattering was still a significant predictor of life satisfaction. © 2021, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan - Faculty of Publich Health. All rights reserved.