Psychological Wellness of Early Childhood Educators Inventory: A Reliability Analysis Study
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03 1101
Psychological Wellness of Early Childhood Educators
Inventory: A Reliability Analysis Study
Samsiah Mohd Jais1, Mohammad Nasir Bistamam1, Mohammad Aziz Shah Mohammed Arip1,
Pau Kee1, Amelia Mohd Noor1, Md Azman Shahadan1
1
Lecturer in Department of Psychology & Counselling, Sultan Idris Education University
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to determine the reliability index of Psychological Wellness of Early Childhood
Educators Inventory (PWECEI) that was developed by Jais et al. (2019) that consists of 163 items in total.
This inventory consists of five domain which are Career Interest, Personality, Psychological Well-Being,
Basis Knowledge, and Ethics and Regulation. Total of 191 early chlidhood educators that participate in
Nursing and Early Education Courses (male:11, female:180) were involved in pilot study. The internal
consistency reliability analysis was conducted and results revealed that overall the Cronbach Alpha value
for this inventory was .86 which shows that PWECEI has acceptable reliability value to measure early
childhood educators’ wellness in Malaysia. Further studies are needed to validate this variable across
different population, culture, and with higher number of samples by using confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA).
Keywords: Caregivers; Psychological Wellness;Career Interest; Personality; Psychological Well-Being;
Basis Knowledge; Ethics and Regulation.
Introduction important factors responsible to the success of the initial
education program aimed at building the basis of stable
Problem Statement: Education in Malaysia is an
children’s emotional and mental development. However
on-going effort towards further developing the potential
the country is often shocked by the news of abusive and
of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as
abusive baby sitting. The issue of baby and toddler abuse
to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually,
by baby sitters and children either in the registered care
emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious,
centre or in the home is endless as it appears on a daily
based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an
basis in local newspapers.
effort is designed to produce Malaysian citizens who
are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high Usually parents who send their children to a day care
moral standards, and who are responsible and capable center expressed concern and encourage every teacher
of achieving high level of personal well-being as well as and caregiver to undergo a mental health screening to
being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment avoid cases of repeated abuse[2]. Although they find it
of the family the society and the nation at large [1]. difficult to do so they feel it is one of the ways to reduce
child abuse cases in nursery or kindergarten. Some of
In the pursuit of achieving this, early childhood
the nursery owner also agree that every employer needs
educators have been proven to be one of the most
to screen caregivers who want to be taken seriously.
In addition to aspects of psychological well-
Corresponding Author: being, criminogenic elements also need to be filtered
Samsiah Mohd Jais to identify pro-violence or pro-crime background and
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology & stance. This is emphasized by Dr Geshina Ayu Mat
Counselling, Sultan Idris Education University Saat from the University of Science Malaysia who is
e-mail: samsiah@fpm.upsi.edu.my also a psychologist. She proposed that the government1102 Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03
enforced individuals who involved in childcare services for easy review using their identity card numbers so
to undergo periodic psychokinetic profiling to prevent that they can review background, work ethic, criminal
repeated child abuse cases[3]. record, abuse and more[5].
In addition, a press release reports that the tragedy Literature Review: Emotional well-being includes
of a five-month-old baby boy was found in a fridge the ability to cope with stress such as being flexible and
caused many people to express dissatisfaction and even compromising to solve problems in which it involves
dared to criticize the care of the victim who was also the building awareness and accepting others’ feelings [6].
accused in the case[4]. They also question the credibility According to Goleman [7], emotional well-being is the
of the babysitter and the appropriate actions that need ability of a person to manage his emotional well-being,
to be taken to prevent such cases from happening again. maintain harmony and express emotions through skills
Undoubtedly the incident involving Adam certainly of self-awareness, self-control, self-motivation, empathy
caused trauma to the community, especially to parents and social skills.
who sent their children to a daycare center.
Spiritual well-being involves the exploration of
Associate Prof Dr Balan Rathakrishnan emphasized meaning and purpose in human life and individuals
that parents should take into account the mental health with spiritual well-being can be identified through
aspects of caregivers before deciding to send children basic characteristics such as feelings of meaningful life
to caregivers. In his opinion, in the case of Adam and direction and relationship with their Creator [6].
the accused may have suffered from a mental health Spiritual well-being has a significant relationship with
condition that prompted him to commit such cruel acts. an individual’s mental health. This finding is supported
According to him, a caregiver may be subjected to by the findings of Shima [8] in which she found that
excessive pressure and may cause them to sometimes individuals with spiritual well-being are at lower risk for
act outside their sanity. This is because they may look mental health problems such as anxiety, and depression.
normal, but if there is a trigger their actions can reach
an unexpected level. In addition, past history can also Physical well-being is the ability of the body to
encourage the accused to look for something weak to perform activities as well as refrain from substance abuse
release anger and self-gratification [4]. activities and individuals who achieve good physical
health have resistance to any diseases that may affect
In addition, Metro Daily reported on average their functioning [9].Well-being enables the development
cases of negligent caregivers are over unregistered of one’s potential to live and work effectively and to
and caregivers with no training and accredation from make significant contributions to society. Therefore,
the Social Welfare Department (JKM) [5]. The main physical well-being is very important to ensure that you
quality to look for in caregivers is patience and they work well and optimally.
have undergone stress-free courses. In KAP there is a
unit for the ethics and professionalism of caregivers, but The well-being of the environment is described in
the authorities want caregivers out there to uphold this a manner that respects mutual respect and in harmony
profession as a professional. This is because caregivers with the environment in which individuals who have
sometimes need to be nurses, doctors, cooks and many a good environmental well-being choose to live by
more. protecting the environment around them [6]. Financial
well-being is a relatively new dimension and is generally
They also recommend that the JKM refer to and adopted as the eighth welfare dimension after the effects
apply Rule 3 (2) of the TPA Act as it is provided of the Depression that lasted from December 2007 to
that any person passing the KAP must register as a June 2008 [6]. Joo [10] states that financial well-being is
registered nurse with the JKM with the doctor’s report a healthy, happy and free financial condition based on
previously required. They also requested that Ministry subjective assessment of financial condition. The lack of
of Health be able to continue this provision to ensure finances can lead to conflicts with family members and
registered nurse record statistics. Many do not do this. can also lead to social problems as a result of having to
There are still many caregivers refuse to register. One find resources to meet family needs.
recommendation they have made to the ministry in the
past is for caregivers to have a board of trustees release Job well-being is described by Sha’ari, Raijah,
an identity or list of caregivers’ names in the portal Rames and Rosnida [6] as routine demands combinedIndian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03 1103
with new and uncertain challenges that make a job (PWECEI). To measure the reliability of this inventory,
enjoyable, meaningful and rewarding. There have this pilot study recruited 191 early childhood caregivers
been studies that found that a poor work environment from eight areas in Malaysia that participated in Nursing
can affect caregiver satisfaction and commitment. For and Early Education Courses.
example, limited promotion opportunities [11], low
salaries[12], high childcare ratio[13-15] and long working Procedure: Researcher explained about any benefits
days (typically between 6.30am and 6.30pm) were the or harm that participants will get from this study before
main reasons for their departure. the data collection process conducted. After that, if they
agree to participated in this study they were asked to fill
Sha’ari, Raijah, Rames and Rosnida [6] state that up the consent form first before proceed to the inventory
social well-being refers to the ability to communicate and part. This inventory took up around 20 minutes to be
connect with others with positive self-image (confident, completed by the participants.
friendly, and caring towards others). According to
Deming and Kahn [16], among the criteria that factor into Measure: Table 1 shows that this inventory consists
a high wage earner and good job performance are the of five domain that represented by 16 different sub-
social and cognitive well-being of individuals involved domain. PWECEI was developed by Jaiset al.[17] to
in relation to experience, education and writing levels. measure the psychological wellness among caregivers of
early chilhood in Malaysia. This self-reported inventory
Methodology was developed in Malay language and consists of five
point Likert scale comprise of positive and negative
Sample: This current study uses a quantitative items. The positive, negative and total number of items
method to find the reliability of the Psychological in each constructs before and after the reliability analysis
Wellness of Early Chilhood Educators Inventory has been conducted can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1: Domain and Construct in PWECEI
Item
Domain/Construct
Positive Negative Total
Career Interest
1. a. Social All positive item - 16
b. Artistic All positive item - 17
2. Personality All positive item - 10
Psychological Well-Being
a. Emotional All positive item - 10
b. Spiritual 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 5 8
c. Physical All positive item - 3
3.
d. Environment 1,2,3,5 4,6 6
e. Financial 1,2 3,4,5 5
f. Occupational All positive item - 13
g. Social All positive item - 8
Basis Knowledge
a. Human Development Knowledge All positive item - 14
4. b. Balanced Nutrition All positive item - 7
c. Nursing and Education All positive item - 13
d. Safety, Cleanliness and Health All positive item - 13
Ethics and Regulation
5. a. Ethics 2,3,4,6,7,10,11 1,5,8,9,12 12
b. Regulation All positive item - 8
Total 152 11 1631104 Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03
Result Some of the construct and sub-construct have
fewer items that is below than 10 items have a quite
Overall the internal consistency of this inventory
low Cronbach alpha value as it is quite sensitive to the
after internal consistency reliability analysis had been
number of items in the scale[19]. So, Pallant [19] suggest
conducted is .86 range from .58 to .96 and the mean of
that it would be more appropriate to report the mean
inter-item correlation is .45. According to Table 2 the
inter-item correlation value for the items. BrckaLorenz,
total number of items in this inventory was 204, but after
Chiang, and Nelson [20] recommend optimal range for
conducted reliability analysis (internal consistency) the
inter-item correlation is between .15 to .85 while optimal
total number of items become 163 with total number of
mean inter-item correlation is between .15 to .50. In this
items been removed was 53. The Cronbach alpha value
study the inter-item correlation varies between .23 to .64
before removing the item was .82, but after some of
with total average inter-item correlation value is .45 that
the items have been removed the Cronbach alpha value
shows an acceptable value.
increase to .86 which shows a good reliability value
according to DeVellis[18]. The general rule of thumb
suggested ideal Cronbach alpha value is above .70
(good), .80 (better) and .90 (best) [18].
Table 2: Outcome from Reliability Analysis of PWECEI
Mean Inter-Item
Number of Item Reliability Value (α)
Domain/Construct Correlation
Before After Before After Before After
Career Interest
1. a. Social 20 16 .91 .92 .36 .41
b. Artistic 20 17 .91 .92 .36 .40
2. Personality 24 10 .73 .87 .12 .39
Psychological Well-Being
a. Emotional 13 10 .80 .88 .27 .43
b. Spiritual 9 8 .79 .80 .40 .43
c. Physical 5 3 .58 .71 .23 .44
3.
d. Environment 6 6 .58 .58 .25 .25
e. Financial 6 5 .79 .79 .39 .44
f. Occupational 20 13 .91 .91 .36 .45
g. Social 9 8 .80 .86 .36 .44
Basis Knowledge
a. Human Development Knowledge 15 14 .94 .94 .50 .51
4. b. Balanced Nutrition 15 7 .92 .94 .45 .70
c. Nursing and Education 15 13 .96 .96 .63 .64
d. Safety, Cleanliness and Health 14 13 .94 .95 .61 .62
Ethics and Regulation
5. a. Ethics 13 12 .69 .76 .19 .23
b. Regulation 12 8 .89 .93 .44 .64
Total 204 163 0.82 0.86 0.37 0.45
Discussion Jais et al.[17]. Reliability define as the extent to which a
research instrument consistently has the same results if
The aim of this paper is to determine the reliability
it is used in the same situation on repeated occasions[21].
of Psychological Wellness of Early Childhood
In this study the type of reliability that being used in this
Educators Inventory (PWECEI) that was developed byIndian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03 1105
study is internal consistency by using Cronbach’ Alpha bahasa/2018/08/25/pakar-pengasuh-kanak-kanak-
test which in this test the average of all correlations perlu-jalani-saringan-kriminogenik-berkala-elak-
in every combination of split-halves is determined. penderaan/
The Cronbach’s α result is a number between 0 and 1. 4. Haamsir N. Ambil kira kesihatan mental pengasuh
An acceptable reliability score is one that is 0.7 and iktibar daripada tragedi kematian Adam Rayqal.
higher[22]. Pressreader [Internet]. 2018 August 10 [cited 2020
Jan 3]. Available from https://www.pressreader.
Finding from this study shows that this PWECEI
com/malaysia/utusan-borneo-sabah/20180810/
has an acceptable and good reliability value (α= .86).
As finding shows that this inventory has an acceptable 5. Malik MA. JKM tak pernah suruh tutup terus.
reliability value, this inventory can be used as an early Harian Metro [Internet]. 2018 August 5 [cited on
step to measure psychological wellness of early childhood 2020 Jan 3]. Available from https://www.hmetro.
educators before they been hired by the related party. com.my/utama/2018/08/365129/jkm-tak-pernah-
This can help government, especially the Ministry of suruh-tutup-terus-metrotv
Women, Family and Community Development to plan 6. Sha’ari AH, Raijah R, Rames, PMR, Rosnida AB.
appropriate action plans. Further studies are necessary Health and Wellness. Malaysia: Open University
to revalidate PWECEI across different population, Malaysia; 2016.
culture, and with higher number of samples by using 7. Goleman D. Emotional intelligence (10th
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). anniversary ed.). Bantam: New York; 2005.
Ethical Clearance: The inform consent was 8. Shima M. The integrating effect of homesickness,
acquired from the participant who agreed to participate attachment and spiritual wellbeing on international
in this study. students’ mental health in Malaysia [dissertation
on the Internet]. Skudai: Malaysia University of
Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest Technology; 2016 [cited 2019 Dec 20]. Available
in this research. from: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79033/1/
ShimaMashayekhiPFP2016.pdf
Source of Funding: This study was funded by the
Psycotest Consultance Service through External Research 9. Borhan Y, Hasbullah I, Sidek M. HBHE3103
Grant 2019(2019-0041-106-29) in collaboration with healthy Life Style. Kuala Lumpur: Open University
lecturers from Psychology and Counselling Department of Malaysia; 2008.
of Sultan Idris Education University. 10. Joo S. Handbook of consumer finance. New York:
Springer; 2008
Reference 11. Cleveland GH, Gunderson M, & Hyatt DE (2003).
1. Ministry of Education [Internet]. Malaysia: Child care workers’ wages: New evidence on
Ministry of Education Malaysia; [updated 2019 returns to education, experience, job tenure, and
December 20; cited December 22]. National auspice. Paper presented at Western Economics
Education Philosophy; [1 paragraph]. Available Association Meetings, Seattle.
from: https://www.moe.gov.my/en/dasarmenu/ 12. Ackerman D. The costs of being a child care teacher.
falsafah-pendidikan-kebangsaan Revisiting the problem of low wages. Educational
2. Fadil M. Ibu bapa saran saringan mental terhadap Policy. 2006;20(1), 85-112.
guru, pengasuh taska. Free Malaysia Today 13. DeSchipper EJ, Riksen-Walraven MJ & Geurts
[Internet]. 2018 August 28 [cited 2020 Jan 3]. SA. Effects of child-caregiver ratio on the
Available from https://www.freemalaysiatoday. interactions between caregivers and children in
com/category/bahasa/2018/08/21/ibu-bapa-saran- child-care centers: An experimental study. Child
saringan-mental-terhadap-guru-pengasuh-taska/ Development. 2006;77, 861-874.
3. Arefin NKA, Pakar: Pengasuh kanak-kanak 14. Huntsman L. Determinants of quality in child
perlu jalani saringan kriminogenik berkala elak care: A review of the research evidence, centre for
penderaan. . Free Malaysia Today [Internet].2018 parenting and research. Ashfield: NSW Department
August 28 [cited 2020 Jan 3]. Available from of Community Services; 2008.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/1106 Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03
15. Torquati JH, Raikes & Huddleston-Casas C. 18. DeVellis RE. Scale development: Theory and
Teacher education, motivation, compensation, applications. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, California:
workplace support, and links to quality of center- Sage; 2003.
based child care and teacher’ intention to stay in 19. Pallant J. SPSS survival manual a step by step guide
the early childhood profession. Early childhood to data analysis using SPSS for Windows third
Research Quarterly. 2007; 22(2), 261-275. edition. London: The McGraw-Hill Companies;
16. Deming D, & Kahn LB. Skill requirements 2016.
across firms and labor markets: Evidence from 20. BrckaLorenz A, Chiang Y & Nelson LT. internal
job postings for professionals. Journal of Labor consistency reliability, fsse psychometric portfolio,
Economics.2017; 36(1), 337–369. 2013; 160, 1 - 4.
17. Jais SM, Bistamam MN, Arip MASM, Kee P, Noor 21. Heale R, & Twycross A. Validity and reliability
AM, Shahadan MA. Instrumen Kesejahteraan in quantitative studies. Evidence Based Nursing,
Psikologi Pendidik Awal Kanak-Kanak. 2015; 18(3), 66-67.
Department of Psychology and Counselling, Sultan
22. Lobiondo-Wood G, Haber J, Cameron C & Sing
Idris Education University. 12th December 2019.
M. Nursing research in Canada: Method, critical
appraisal, and utilization. Toronto: Elsevier; 2013.You can also read
