Background One of the occupations that suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) is the teaching profession. Although teachers are known to have a variety of health and safety issues, few studies have actually been published that relate to somatic health problems of teachers, especially studies conducted in Malaysia. From this viewpoint, it is clearly important to investigate psychosocial factors, and MSD with depression as mediator among school teachers. Methods The study aimed to determine the incidence of MSD for school teachers in 15 primary schools in Kuala Lumpur during a 6-month period. Secondly, the study also sought to examine the relationships between psychosocial factors, depression and MSD among teachers. Thirdly, the study aimed to explore depression as mediator. The hypothesis addressed by this cross-sectional study was that depression would prove to be a mediator for the psychosocial factors affecting MSD. Results The incidence of MSD during the previous 6 months was 80.1% (95% CI: 75.8–84.2%), with 80.5% of female and 77.5% of male teachers reporting symptomatic pain during that period. There were significant relationships between psychosocial factors, depression, and MSD. The results indicated that in relation to psychosocial factors, depression ( r = − 0.25, p < .01) and musculoskeletal disorder ( r = −.17, p < .01) were both negative. In addition, depression was positively related to musculoskeletal disorder ( r = .30, p < .01). Furthermore, depression appeared to have a partially mediating effect on the relationship between psychosocial factors and MSD. Conclusions The findings in this study demonstrate that psychosocial factors and depression are significant predictors of MSD among teachers. Recognizing the relationship between these variables will help in arranging, planning or actualizing preventive intervention programs for teachers with the hope of lessening the incidence of MSD. This study also provides awareness for teachers and the Malaysian Ministry of Education regarding the issues of MSD in the workplace.

Objectives Workplace sexual harassment is a prominent issue in Malaysia. Although the subject of sexual harassment has been researched for over two decades, information on how organizations could effectively prevent workplace sexual harassment is limited. The researchers investigated the importance of organizational climate for psychosocial safety of workplace sexual harassment prevention. Methods Purposive random sampling was utilized to recruit participants in the study. Semi‐structured interviews were then conducted with Malaysian employees (N = 20) from various organizations. The study applied the Grounded Theory Approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1976) to identify the participants' coping strategies in dealing with sexual harassment that occurred at their workplace. Results The interviews revealed that both genders were potential victims or witnesses of workplace sexual harassment. Since many Malaysian organizations do not implement any workplace sexual harassment prevention, most of the victims and witnesses tend to use passive self‐coping approaches. Typically, policy and guidelines implementation would encourage employees to voice their concerns; however, we discovered that participants' motivation to use active coping strategies depended on organizational role rather than the policy and guidelines implementation. Surprisingly, we also found out that participants from zero policy organizations used active coping strategies when the sexual harassment reached intolerable levels. Conclusion Organizations play a critical role in helping and supporting both victims and witnesses deal with sexual harassment at the workplace. Organizational climate for psychosocial safety is therefore crucial in the primary and secondary prevention of sexual harassment at work.

Occupational stress is an important issue not only for the researchers but also for the employees and managers at work. This study aims to determine the effects of occupational stress on job satisfaction, intention to leave and absenteeism. A sample of 100 employees in the Companies Commission of Malaysia, a statutory body regulating companies and businesses was recruited to participate in the study. A questionnaire was used to collect information on demographics, stress, job satisfaction, intention to leave and absenteeism. Pearson correlation and Multiple Linear Regression was used to examine the relationships between different variables. The results show that occupational stress does not have a direct effect on the intention to leave and absenteeism. In contrast, occupational stress has a direct negative effect on job satisfaction. Furthermore, job satisfaction has negative effects on the intention to leave and absenteeism. In conclusion, the authors recommend the following to management: (a) increasing job satisfaction by reducing employee occupational stress, and (b) that by reducing stress, the organization can reduce the levels of intention to leave and absenteeism among employees. Contribution/ Originality: The study contributes to the existing literature regarding the effect of occupational stress on job satisfaction, intention to leave and absenteeism, particularly in Malaysia. The present study highlighted the importance of reducing occupational stress with the aim to minimize employees' intention to leave and absenteeism and increase their job satisfaction.

The focus of this research is around education specifically academic achievement of year 10 students in Secondary Schools Brunei. The purpose of this research is to explore the effects of self-regulated learning, parental involvement, and homework on the academic achievement of the Year 10 students. MethodsThe collection of data is hoped to provide invaluable insight for teachers, unit of Guidance and Counseling, parents, students, and individual on the topic concerning the academic achievement of the students and particularly their children. Therefore, measures can be taken to address any issues to improve their academic achievement. Before-hand, a pilot study was carried out to determine the consistency of the questionnaire. The research instrument adopted in this research, for instance, is the questionnaire and it involves 300 students of year 10 in randomly selected government schools in Brunei. All the accumulated data were processed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). Multiple regression and MANOVA were used to test the research questions. ResultsThe findings provide evidence that self-regulated learning, parental involvement and homework have significant impact on academic achievement [R²= .047, adjusted R² = .046; F= (3,220= 3.742 p=0.05). The model explained 4.7% of the variance in the students' academic achievement. The findings also showed that self-regulated learning (F = (1, 222 =21.40, p=0.000) and homework (F=

This study examined lay beliefs about intelligence cross-culturally using a questionnaire based on an expert summary of what is known about intelligence. Two hundred and thirty five university undergraduates in Malaysia, 347 undergraduates in Britain and 137 undergraduates in the US rated for agreement 30 items about the nature, measurement, between-group differences and practical importance of intelligence. An exploratory factor analysis revealed three factors: (1) stability, reliability and validity of intelligence tests; (2) practical importance of intelligence and (3) source and stability of within-group intelligence. While the overall factor structure did not vary a great deal between groups, there were significant cross-cultural differences on the mean scores for Factors 1-3. Explanations for cross-cultural differences in implicit theories of intelligences are considered, and limitations of the study discussed.