Saj 7 2010

SUNWAY ACADEMIC JOURNAL
KDN No. PP 14193/07/2011(028656)
Volume 7 ISSN 1823-500X 2010
A Computing Curriculum Wiki: Analysis and Modelling Using the MAS-CommonKADS 1

Agent-Oriented Methodology
Adelina Tang & Angela Lee
Behaviour Problems in Dogs: The Relationship between Reported Behaviour Problems, Causal 16
Attributions and Ineffective Discipline
Wong Poh Wan & Cheong Sau Kuan
Hill Recreational and Services Valuation: A Case Study of Taman Melawati Hill 33
Pek Chuen Kee, Ng Phuay Ying & Tee Chee Hoong
Parental Involvement: Effect on Satisfaction of Parent-Child Relationship 48

Yeoh Si Han
Secondary School Mathematics and Gender on MUFY Math Performance – A Sunway Campus 63
Case Study
Tang Eng Loong
The Impact of Neighborhood Types on Residential Property Prices 77

Tan Teck-Hong
The Relationship between Perceived Parenting Styles and Stress Level among Malaysian 89
Secondary School Students
Tay Ee Lin & Tam Cai Lian
The Relationship between Work Environment Stress and Marital Happiness among Software 105
Professionals
Priyadarshini Srinivasan
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Sunway Academic Journal 7 1
A COMPUTING CURRICULUM WIKI: ANALYSIS AND

MODELLING USING THE MAS-CommonKADS AGENT-
ORIENTED METHODOLOGY
ADELINA TANG
Sunway University
No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway
46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: +60(3)74918622 Ext.3314
Fax: +60(3)56358633
adelinat@sunway.edu.my
ANGELA LEE
Sunway University
ABSTRACT
Curriculum development, maintenance and management are time-consuming and labour-intensive activities
resulting from countless feedback-rework cycles. The frequency of such activities tends to increase owing to the
accelerated nature of advances in Computing. It is proposed that an existing Computing Ontology be adapted to
facilitate these activities by developing a common vocabulary for all Computing disciplines to realize an online
Curriculum Wiki facility. The operations of the Wiki would be implemented through ontological agents. This
article presents insights into the modelling process of various user-initiated Wiki tasks using the MAS-
CommonKADS Agent-Oriented Methodology.
Keywords: computing ontology, curriculum wiki, agent, MAS-CommonKADS
INTRODUCTION
Curriculum development, maintenance and management are time-consuming and labour-

intensive. Meetings, discussions, differences of opinion and countless feedback-rework
cycles serve to make these activities acutely problematic but totally necessary in any
academic institution. Furthermore, curriculum updating activities are expected to be carried
out fairly regularly within a three-year timeframe owing to the accelerated nature of
advances in Computing. It is proposed that an existing Computing Ontology be adapted to
facilitate these activities by developing a common vocabulary for all Computing disciplines
as a first step.
To be specific, Cassel’s Computing Ontology project (Cassel, Sloan, Davies, Topi, &
McGettrick, 2007) is utilized as the Ontology on which the Curriculum Wiki is based. The
Wiki project introduces further enhancements so as to adapt Cassel et al.’s work to enable
the sharing of stakeholders’ feedback and to aid curriculum developers. To this end, the
project proposes that ontological agents be utilized to facilitate the Wiki operations. These
agents are modelled using the MAS-CommonKADS Agent-Oriented Methodology (Medina,
Sánchez, & Castellanos, 2004) which ensures that all possible use cases and scenarios are
2
fully analyzed from various perspectives. This paper provides an insight into the modelling
process and highlights the complexities therein.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Computing Ontology
An Ontology facilitates the sharing of knowledge. It is a specification of a representational

vocabulary for a shared domain of discourse, as defined in Gruber’s seminal work (Gruber,
1993). The shared domain of discourse would consist of classes, relations, functions, and
similar objects of interest. Ontologies provide the basic structure around which knowledge
bases can be built (Swartout & Tate, 1999). Ontological engineering activities include
philosophy, knowledge representation formalisms, development methodologies, knowledge
sharing and reuse, information retrieval from the Internet or any online repositories, to name
a few. It provides a systematic design rationale of a knowledge base according to the context
of interest (Devedžić, 2002). Berners-Lee and colleagues in their famous paper (Berners-
Lee, Hendler, & Lassila, 2001) included Ontologies as the important third basic component
of the Semantic Web, stating that Web Ontologies typically consist of a taxonomy that
defines classes of objects and relations among them, and a set of inference rules. Inference
rules feature prominently in the manipulation of terms that provide meaning to the human
user. Furthermore, the combination of the taxonomy and the inference rules provide
equivalence of meanings from two or more disparate information sources.
Cassel et al (2007) proposed their Computing Ontology project with sponsorship from
the United States National Science Foundation (US NSF), the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer
Society (IEEE-CS). The authors compressed the five distinct fields, Computer Engineering,
Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, and Software
Engineering, into one generic computing field. This was to facilitate the development of a
single Computing Ontology. In their project, the primary objective was to connect the
comprehensive list of typical computing topics with curriculum development and course-
planning activities. Thereafter, a prototype system for matching course topics and outcomes
would emerge. Cassel, Davies, LeBlanc, Snyder and Topi (2008a) proposed a web-based
utility to enable a course developer to select or create outcomes as well as to select suitable
topics that could achieve those very outcomes.
Upon further scrutiny, it is proposed that some enhancements be introduced into
Cassel’s current project, so as to adapt it to fulfil this project’s objectives without having to
create it from scratch. The screenshots in Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the limitations of the
visualizations of the existing Computing Ontology (Cassel, Davies, LeBlanc, Snyder, &
Topi, 2008b). The authors used “Flash” screens to illustrate a drill-down from top level
concepts to subsequently more specific concepts.
Note that these illustrations do not indicate whether such concepts would be taught in
the same or in separate courses. The “Flash” screens also do not interface with any other
information source. This limits their utility in supporting actual curriculum maintenance and
management activities. For instance, no outcomes are associated with any of the concepts.
While the depth of coverage is indicated, the breadth of coverage across different courses
and possibly even different Computing disciplines, is not indicated clearly. The authors also
admit that there might be too many top level concepts and that these should be reduced.
Figure 1. “Testing” Concept Reveals All Related Concepts.

4 Penetration Testing 0
Third Level
Null
Regression Testing 0 Usability Testing

Fourth Level
4
Testing Across Quality Reliability Testing and Fault- Tolerance 5

Fifth Level
Fourth Level
Coverage-Based Testing 3
0 Sixth Level
Fifth Level
Web Usability and Testing Techniques for Web 0

Operational- Profile based testing 0 Fifth Level
Sixth Level
Stress Testing 0
Testing Techniques 2 Fifth Level
Fourth Level
Interface Testing 0
Testing Approaches 6 Fifth Level
Fourth Level
Testing Tools 0 User Interface Testing and Evaluation 4

Third Level
Fourth Level
Unit Testing 0 Integration Testing

Fifth Level
0
Fifth Level
A further functionality is revealed by searching for the “Testing” concept, the result of
which is displayed in Figure 1. Although there appear to be numerous “Testing”-related
concepts, Figure 2 shows that not all reside within the major concept of “System
Verification and Validation”. Additionally, Figure 1 does not indicate which other major
concepts might contain the other “Testing” concepts. This alludes to the issue of solely
adopting the horizontal approach in which concepts exist across several courses, without
considering the vertical approach which views concepts as resident within a specific course.
Figure 2. “Testing” Concepts Reside within the “System Verification and Validation”
Major Concept that Belongs to the “Systems Development” Top Level Concept.
MAIN Systems Development System Verification and

Fifth Level
Problem Analysis and V and V Terminology and
4 5
0
Reviews
Testing
4
Te
User Interface Testing and Evaluation
4
4
Cassel et al. (2008a) pointed out that their Computing Ontology “provided a tool for
faculty and students to use in determining how much of a given topic is appropriate in a
particular context”. They added that the role of the Ontology was to show the relationships
of concepts to facilitate decision-making, and provided a hand-drawn graphical
representation of the “Testing” concept (see Figure 3) to strengthen their arguments.
Figure 3. Hand-drawn Graphical Representation of the “Testing” Concept.
Owing to the limitations of the existing Computing Ontology, this paper proposes to
create a Computing Curricula Repository (CCR) to provide similar graphical representations
as an added utility in aiding curriculum developers to make informed decisions. It is
envisaged that the adapted Computing Ontology would play the role of a knowledge base
that provides the necessary information to realize visualizations of concepts that exist across
disparate courses as well as within a specific course.
Ontologies and Agents
If one views the different computing disciplines as different databases, i.e. the Computer
Science database, Information Technology database, etc., grouping them together would
then make them a set of federated databases. An alternative would be to organize the
curriculum in terms of their respective years of study, i.e. Year 1 Common Core, etc.
Regardless of the preference, obtaining information from different databases represent
different challenges.
In Medina et al. (2004), the authors proposed utilizing agents and Ontologies to retrieve
information from a set of federated digital libraries. They adopted the MAS-CommonKADS
Agent-Oriented Methodology (AOM) to model their agents. MAS-CommonKADS is
extended from the CommonKADS methodology that uses some OO concepts and
techniques. However, it ultimately reflects its Knowledge Acquisition, Engineering and
Management roots from the ESPRIT IT Program (CommonKADS, 1995).
The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) provides an ontology-based

ontology
description of the knowledge model, but leaves the understanding, manipulation and the
internal agent memory model to the developer’s discretion and preference (FIPA, 2001).
Ultimately, the application of XML, a key component of the Semantic Web (Berners-Lee
(Berners et
al., 2001),
), provides intelligent access to heterogeneous and distributed sources. In essence,
(Fensel, 2001) pointed out that agents operate as mediators between user needs and
information resources.
This paper proposes to adopt the MAS--CommonKADS AOM to model the agents and
their accompanying processes so as to facilitate the user-initiated
user Wiki tasks owing to the
success reported by the authors in modelling agents and Ontologies (Medina
( et al. 2004).
METHODOLOGY
The scheme proposed by Cassel et al. (2008a)

2008a), shown in Figure 4, is adopted for the CCR.
The “Existing Curriculum” is fixed and not editable by the larger Computing community.
The “Curriculum Wiki”” is an editable environment which allows suggested additions and
revisions to be introduced into a copy of the
he existing curriculum, i.e. a working/discussion
copy. These activities are made transparent to all members of the Computing community.
The third component, the “Discussion Forum”, enables discussions regarding the
aforementioned additions and revisions. Note that the middle section, the Curriculum Wiki,
is the focus of this paper.
Figure 4. Computing Ontology Development Scheme.

S
A study by Cassel et al. (2008c) was initiated to determine the ontological agent
characteristics and tasks to be undertaken by them as part of the overall Curriculum Wiki
project requirements. Thereafter, the MAS--CommonKADS AOM was used to model the
ontological agents that are tasked to extract relevant resources. The AOM consists of three
phases: Conceptualization, Analysis, and Design.
In the Conceptualization phase, a preliminary description is elicited through the
application of used cases/scenarios which are formalized with Message Sequence Charts
(Iglesias, Garijo, González, & Velasco, 1998). Briefly, its Analysis phase consists of the
following models:
• Agent modelling - Identification and description of initial instances of agents. A textual
template is used for each agent that includes name, type, role, position, description,
services, and so on.
6
• Task modelling - A top-down approach is used to decompose tasks. In the Curriculum

Wiki, the tasks performed by the agents are already decomposed in the Agent Model.
Since the Task Model is similar to the Agent Model, its discussion has been omitted.
• Expertise modelling - It consists of the development of the application knowledge and
problem-solving knowledge.
• Coordination modelling - It defines communication channels, construction of a prototype
and coordination protocols.
• Knowledge modelling - It models the reasoning of the agent in a domain and the
inferences of the environment. In the Curriculum Wiki, the reasoning and environmental
influences are already captured in the Expertise Model. Since the Knowledge Model is
similar to the Expertise Model, its discussion has been omitted.
• Organization modelling - It models the static or structural relationships between agents.
This is not applicable in the Curriculum Wiki context as the Coordination Model more
accurately captures the relationships among agents by modelling their communication and
coordination characteristics.
The next section will detail the Conceptualization and the Analysis phases which have
been completed. The Design phase and the development work are targeted for completion
within the next four months.
RESULTS
Table 1 summarizes the relevant agents and their Performance, Environment, Actuators and
Sensors (PEAS) characteristics.
Table 1. Curriculum Wiki Agents

Agent Type Performance Environment Actuators Sensors
Manager Act as a Virtual Perform Keyboard,
communicator interaction Mouse
among all the among agent
agents. It is also
able to accept user
request and forward
each user request to
the
predictor/historian.
Retriever Minimizes the Virtual Display results Keyboard ,
delivery time and of search and Mouse
avoids human learning
intervention. outcomes
For example, one-
time data entry
would help reduce
the chances of re-

introducing new
errors. This agent is
also able to “post
and retrieve”
information.
User Send request, post Virtual, Prompt Keyboard,
messages. Administrative instructions Mouse
and Academic
Staff,
Curriculum
Steering
Committee
Predictor Consists of a Virtual Display result Keyboard
prediction tool
which allows the
system to keep track
of user activity and
stores every request
in order to generate
a user request
pattern.
Four user requests were identified:

1. UR#1: Search for Learning Outcomes from Course Code/Course Name
2. UR#2: Search for all related concepts from Keyword(s)
3. UR#3: Request for Course Exemption
4. UR#4: Request for Change in Course Syllabus
Each of these user requests was analyzed using the MAS-CommonKADS AOM. The
relevant phases include:
1. Conceptualization Phase
a. Conceptualization Modelling
2. Analysis Phase
a. Agent Modelling
b. Coordination Modelling
c. Expertise Modelling
As user requests UR#1 and UR#2 were found to yield similar results, this paper will only
detail UR#1. UR#3 and UR#4 will include only details that are different from those stated
earlier. Tables 2 – 4 describe the results of the analysis of user requests, UR#1, UR#3 and
UR#4, using the MAS-CommonKADS AOM.
8
Table 2. UR#1: Search for Learning Outcomes from Course Code/Course Name.
Phase 1 : Conceptualisation Modelling - Message Sequence Chart
In this phase, use cases/scenarios were used to assist the understanding of all the possible
requirements. This helped to identify all pertinent agent interactions.
Steps:
1. Key in Course Name or Course Code
2. Display Programme Year, Level and Learning Outcomes
The user would need to key in the course code or course name in order for the system to
display the programme year, level and learning outcomes. If the user keys in a wrong or
invalid course code, the system will generate an error message telling the user that the
course code is an invalid code.
Phase 2: Agent Modelling
The agents identified include the Manager, the Retriever and the Predictor. In this case, the
User is the initiator of the request.
Name of Agent Role Type Services
Manager Interact with the user by User Interface Process user request
accepting the request of and collect the
user, and displaying the results to be
results. displayed to the
users.
Retriever Retrieve data from the User interface Conduct a search in
server. In this case, the and Computing order to retrieve the
agent will retrieve the Ontology data from server.
learning outcomes and
programme year and
level.
Predictor Store the results and Computing Store all user tasks,
records of all user Ontology useful when the task
requests. is repeated.
a
Phase 3: Coordination Modelling - Event Flow Diagram
The event flow diagram shows a typical interaction among the four agents. This diagram
explains and demonstrates the flow of communication between each agent and its outcomes.
The interchange of data is shown in squared brackets.
Phase 4 : Expertise Modelling
This model describes the knowledge needed by each agent to achieve its goals.
Agent Goals Knowledge Needed
Manager - Display results of user - User request able to forward

request requests to the following
- Communicate with Retriever agent
Retriever - Conduct search - Communication from
- Retrieve information from Manager event
the server - Data request from Manager
- Communicate with server event
Predictor - Store user task - Every interaction that occurs
- Store a pattern of user between Manager and
requests Retriever
- User request
a
Table 3. UR#3: Request for Course Exemption.

Steps:
1. Click on “Exemption” icon
2. System perform check
3. Display the list of all possible course
All exemptions are only applicable for Year 1. The MQA document will be made available
10
to the user once the system is able to find the relevant course to be exempted.
This model is similar to that of UR#1 with the exception of the Retriever and Predictor
details.
Retriever Search possible Computing - Perform matching.

keyword on MQA Ontology - Extract relevant
document MQA document
from the server.
- Alert Predictor
about new request.
Predictor Store request history Computing Facilitates repeating
Ontology request
a
Agent Goals Knowledge Needed
Manager - Display results - User request (Keyword)

Retriever - Conduct search - Communication from
- Retrieve information from the Manager event
server - Data request from Manager
event
Predictor Store user task - User request
- Store a pattern of user
requests
a
Table 4. UR#4: Request for Change in Course Syllabus.

Steps:
1. User download MQA document
2. Edit on their perusal
3. Upload document of text reference and store in Curriculum Wiki.
If the user wants to make changes to the syllabus, he can download the MQA document
from the server. After that, the user can then upload the document to the Curriculum Wiki.
The Wiki acts as the platform where the user and other stakeholders interact. Typically, a
discussion forum is automatically initiated in the Curriculum Wiki to accommodate such
virtual communications. The discussion timeline for all stakeholders’ comments is
approximately 2 weeks. Stakeholders comprise course specialists and Steering Curriculum
Committee members. The Steering Curriculum Committee is tasked with
approving/rejecting such changes. Upon approval, the system is able to replace the existing
MQA document with the working copy. All activities and accompanying information are
logged by the Predictor.
12
Manager Interact with the User Interface and Process user request
user by accepting Curriculum Wiki and collect the
the request of user results to be
and displaying the displayed to the
results. users.
Retriever Retrieve data from User Interface and - Conduct a search
the server. Ontology in order to retrieve
Document of MQA Computing the data from the
will be sent back to server.
the user to make - Perform search on
changes. the relevant MQA
document
Predictor Store the results and Computing Record all requests
records of all user Ontology and and comments on
requests. Curriculum Wiki the system.
a
The event flow diagram shows the user requesting a MQA document from the Manager.
The Manager retrieves the documents from the Retriever. Manager and Predictor record all
user requests for future use. The Curriculum Wiki acts as the platform where the user and
other stakeholders interact. This reduces the number of meetings required in curriculum
planning. Every user request is recorded by the Predictor. A discussion forum is initiated in
the Curriculum Wiki to accommodate such virtual communications. The Steering
Curriculum Committee is tasked with approving/rejecting changes through the forum. Upon
approval, the system is able to replace the existing MQA document with the working copy.
An acknowledgement is sent to alert the user that an approved change in the course syllabus
has been updated.
This model is similar to that in UR#3 with the exception of the Predictor which requires
knowledge of the Discussion Forum in addition to the existing knowledge of the user
request.
DISCUSSION
Benefits of the MAS-CommonKADS AOM Models
The Conceptualisation phase gave a rough idea of the agent interactions that could take
place (Iglesias et al., 1998). These agent interactions were refined during Coordination
Modelling in the Analysis phase. The resulting refinements specified the data/knowledge
interchanged and the speech-act of each interaction seen in the Event Flow Diagrams,
Coordination Modelling in Tables 2 – 4. Hence, the refinements provided useful details to
the developer to facilitate prototyping.
In addition, Agent Modelling ensured accurate description of the agent roles and the
services that each is responsible to provide. It also defined the information source from
which the agent should retrieve. This model provides the full set of characteristics of
individual agents.
Finally, Expertise Modelling determines the reasoning capabilities of the agents in
carrying out their specified tasks and in achieving their goals (Iglesias et al., 1998) (see
Expertise Modelling in Tables 2 – 4). One benefit of using this model is that previously
developed instances of the expertise model could be re-used and adapted to new
characteristics of the agents should requirements change.
Future Work
As a result of the Conceptualisation and Analysis phases, the initial agents and their
corresponding characteristics have been determined. The next stage of this project would
realize the Design phase of the MAS-CommonKADS AOM which includes the agent
network design, the agent design and the platform design. Thereafter, the development of
the ontology and the Computing Curricula Repository would begin.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it has been shown that software ontological agents can be modelled
successfully by the MAS-CommonKADS Agent Oriented Methodology. These agents are
created to facilitate online curriculum development, maintenance and management tasks of
the Computing Curriculum Wiki.
14
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16
BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS IN DOGS: THE RELATIONSHIP

BETWEEN REPORTED BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS, CAUSAL
ATTRIBUTIONS, AND INEFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE
WONG POH WAN

Sunway University
No 5, Jalan Universiti,
Bandar Sunway, 46150 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +60(3)74918622 ext 3857
Fax: +60(3)56358633
E-mail: pwwong@sunway.edu.my
CHEONG SAU KUAN

Sunway University
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between causal attributions of dogs’ behaviour
problems, ineffective discipline, and reported behaviour problems. One hundred dog owners (50 males and 50
females) from Selangor and Kuala Lumpur were surveyed using questionnaires containing the Causal Dimension
Scale, Dog Discipline Scale, and Canine Behaviour Checklist. Participants were above 18 years old and owned a
dog at the time of participation in this study. Results indicated that higher perceptions of stability of behaviour
problems were significantly related to higher reported behaviour problems and higher ratings of ineffective
discipline. Higher ineffective discipline was also related to higher reported behaviour problems. Lastly,
ineffective discipline was found to be a mediator between perception of stability and reported behaviour
problems. In conclusion, dog owners’ perceptions affect their disciplining behaviours, which ultimately
influence the behaviour of their dogs.
Key words: dog, causal attributions, ineffective discipline, behaviour problems
INTRODUCTION
Dogs have evolved and adapted to life alongside humans, playing a multitude of different
roles in their relationship with their owners. Many research findings show that the owner-
dog relationship may be maintained because both the dog owners and dogs benefit from the
relationship. It is then perplexing to discover the high rates of dog abandonment and
relinquishment. If there are so many benefits to keeping a pet dog, why do people abandon
them or return them to the animal shelters? One reason could be the behaviour problems
exhibited by the dogs. Many dog owners cannot cope or do not know how to cope with the
behaviour problems of their dogs. Some may have even been misled by the portrayal of
dogs in movies and cartoons whereby canines seem loyal, helpful, and seemingly able to
take care of themselves. Ultimately, when the dog’s behaviour does not match the
expectations of the dog owners, many problems surface in the owner-dog relationship. The
dogs often end up at the losing end as they will be abandoned or relinquished. In conclusion,
when factors that are related to behaviour problems in dogs can be identified, more can be
done to prevent or reduce the behaviour problems, thereby improving the owner-dog
relationship.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Dog ownership has been linked to various benefits for dog owners: social and emotional
benefits (McNicholas & Collis, 2000), potential health benefits such as increased physical
activity compared to non-owners (Cutt, Giles-Corti, Knuiman, Timperio, & Bull, 2008) and
also act as a stress buffer for the elderly (Siegel, 1990). Therefore, dog owners can gain
much from the interaction with their dogs. On the other hand, dogs also benefit from having
an owner. A responsible owner can satisfy the dogs’ basic needs for food and shelter. Even
when dog and cat owners reported low attachment to their pets, they still took care of the
basic needs of their pets (Shore, Douglas, & Riley, 2005). The owners also provide for the
dogs’ social needs of interaction, love, and warmth. Thus, it would seem that this owner-dog
relationship should be maintained because of the many benefits it affords to both parties. As
proposed by the exchange theory (as cited in Cook & Whitmeyer, 1992), people are
motivated by interests or costs/benefits. Hence, they would be motivated to maintain social
relationships in which they perceive the benefits outweigh the costs. Since there are so many
benefits afforded by the owner-dog relationship, dog owners should be highly motivated to
maintain their relationships with their dogs.
However, the high rates of dog abuse, abandonment, and relinquishment by dog owners
seem to indicate otherwise. One major reason individuals provided for pet relinquishment
was behavioural problems in dogs (Mondelli & Previde, 2004). The reported behavioural
problems included too much vocalisation, hyperactivity, destructive behaviour, escaping,
disobedience, and problems with other pets. In addition, a research on 1171 Taiwan
residents revealed that dog owners who did admit to abandoning their dogs cited two main
reasons for doing so: either the dog was too much trouble or because of the dog’s behaviour
problems (Hsu, Severinghaus, & Serpell, 2003). Hence, evidence suggests that behaviour
problems seem to be the main cause of strain on the owner-dog relationship resulting in the
inability of both parties to benefit from the relationship.
Due to the limited literature on dog-owner relationships and behaviour problems and the
similarity of the conditions between parent-child and owner-dog relationships, some of the
literature on parent-child relationships can be adapted to reflect the owner-dog context.
Accordingly, this paper will draw upon the theories and findings from parent and children
studies since pets may solicit the same nurturing instinct from owners as children do from
their parents. The parenting practices that have evolved in caring for human infants are
applied to caring for pet dogs (Prato-Previde, Fallani, & Valsecchi, 2006). Individuals are
also known to project human qualities and traits to non-humans, such as animals. This
phenomenon is known as anthropomorphism. Serpell (2002) defines anthropomorphism as
the attribution of thought, feeling, intention, and human mental processes to non-human
animals. In a study of attribution of human traits to non-humans, dogs were among one of
the animals receiving the most attributions of human traits (Hogan, 1980).
18
Causal Attributions and Reported Behaviour Problems
The attribution theory proposed by Weiner (1985) states that individuals constantly seek to
explain the positive or negative outcomes of events. He explains that negative outcomes
usually lead to negative feelings and individuals would try to assign causal explanations to
those negative outcomes. These explanations occur on three dimensions, which are locus of
causality, stability, and controllability (Weiner, 1985). The locus of causality refers to
whether the cause is internal or external, stability refers to whether the cause is permanent
or changes with time, and controllability refers to whether the individual had control over
the causal factor. According to the attribution theory, causal attributions result in many
psychological and behavioural outcomes.
A study on 100 mother-child pairs found that the mothers of aggressive children were
more likely to attribute hostile intentions to the ambiguous actions of their own and other
children (MacBrayer, Milich, & Hundley, 2003). When presented with vignettes of
hypothetical situations, mothers of aggressive children tended to attribute the cause of the
situation to some aspects of other people, were more likely to believe the person acted
intentionally, and also commented on the personality traits of others. In applying the
attribution theory, mothers who have hostile attributions towards their children are more
likely to feel anger or hopelessness and also have negative perceptions of their children.
Similar to parents, dog owners may also have differing causal attributions towards their
dogs’ misbehaviour. Some may interpret a dog’s misbehaviour as being internal, stable, and
controllable, that is, the dog is perceived as knowingly and intentionally misbehaving.
Others may perceive behaviour problems to be more external, temporary, and
uncontrollable. Differing attributions may affect the owner’s perception on the amount of
behaviour problems in the dogs. Hence, it is believed that the dog owner’s causal
attributions regarding their dog’s behaviours would be related to the amount of reported
behaviour problems in dogs.
Causal Attributions and Ineffective Discipline
In applying Weiner’s attribution theory to parent-child relationships, Dix and colleagues (as
cited in Johnston & Ohan, 2005) proposed that parents seek to explain or understand their
children’s behaviour in order to decide how to react to the behaviour. In their social-
cognitive model which builds upon the attribution theory, they suggest that parental
attributions are a mediating factor which determines parent’s reactions to their child’s
behaviours. This means that parental attributions towards children’s behaviour can affect
parenting styles and parental attitudes towards disciplining.
A study by Dix, Ruble, and Zambarano (1989) showed that mothers made decisions on
the forcefulness of disciplining based on their attributions or judgements of how competent
or responsible the child was in the particular situation. Mothers were found to be more upset
with the children when they thought the children understood that they were misbehaving.
When the child was thought to be competent and responsible for the misbehaviour, mothers
were also sterner, disapproving, and recommended longer periods of time-out as
punishment. Slep and O’Leary (1998), on the other hand, used an experimental method to
determine the relationship between attribution and discipline. The attribution of behaviour
was manipulated by either inducing mothers to think that their children were not to blame
for misbehaviour or inducing them to think that their child was intentionally misbehaving
with negative intent. It was found that mothers were more overreactive when they perceived
their children to be responsible and intentional in their misbehaviour. The children were also
found to have more negative affect and although not significant, they indicated more
behavioural problems.
It is possible that the association between attributions and disciplining may manifest in
the owner-dog relationship. Similar to parents, dog owners who perceive their dog’s
misbehaviour to be caused by the dog, permanent, and controllable by the dog, may be more
harsh or overreactive in their disciplining. They may also be less forgiving and believe that
their dogs should be punished harshly. On the other hand, those who attribute the cause of
the misbehaviour as external, temporary, and uncontrollable by the dog, may be more lax in
their disciplining. Both harsh and lax disciplining is ineffective when used excessively with
the dog. Therefore, the attributions made by dog owners towards their dogs’ misbehaviour
can lead to the use of ineffective discipline when dealing with their dogs.
Ineffective Discipline and Reported Behaviour Problems
The discipline styles used by parents can have many positive and/or negative effects on their
children. Baumrind (1966) proposed that there are three parenting styles: authoritarian,
permissive, and authoritative. These parenting styles each differ in the levels of control and
warmth exhibited by the parents.
According to Baumrind (1966), authoritarian parents are usually strict in enforcing what
they believe is right and do not encourage discussions or give explanations to their children.
On the other hand, permissive parents are said to demand little in terms of responsibility and
usually yield to their children’s demands. Lastly, authoritative parents are those who have
high levels of control and warmth towards their children at the same time.
In measuring the different parenting styles, Arnold, O’Leary, Wolff, and Acker (1993)
have come up with the Parenting Scale. The scale assesses ineffective discipline used by
parents in terms of laxness, overreactivity, and verbosity. According to Arnold and
colleagues (1993), their measure of lax discipline practices are comparable to Baumrind’s
permissive parenting while their measures of overreactive discipline practices are
comparable to Baumrind’s authoritarian parenting. Verbosity and authoritative parenting
will not be discussed in this study as they do not fit into the owner-dog interaction pattern.
This is because authoritative parenting styles and verbosity focus more on verbal
interactions between parent and child, such as talking and reasoning with the child. This is
not applicable to the owner-dog relationship. Therefore, in this research, ineffective
disciplining by the dog owners will encompass both laxness and overreactivity.
Now, what is the relationship between discipline styles and behaviour problems?
Parental use of harsh physical and verbal discipline has been related to children’s behaviour
problems (McKee et al., 2007). When the effects of positive parenting were controlled,
maternal harsh physical discipline was significantly related to the child internalising
behaviours and maternal harsh verbal and physical discipline was significantly related to
child externalising behaviours. Paternal harsh verbal and physical discipline was
significantly related to both child internalising and externalising behaviours. In addition,
Jewell, Krohn, Scott, Carlton, and Meinz (2008) found that maternal authoritarian parenting
styles and paternal permissive parenting styles were linked to more externalising behaviours
20
in their children. Thus, overreactive and lax discipline styles contribute to the development
of internalising and externalising behaviour problems in children.
Adapting from the knowledge of parenting styles used by parents, it is believed that dog
owners may employ similar disciplining styles with their dogs. Dog owners may engage in
lax and/or overreactive disciplining styles with their dogs Therefore, the dog owners’
ineffective disciplining may have an effect on the amount and severity of behaviour
problems in their dogs. However, minimal studies and experiments have been found which
explore the dog owners’ use of ineffective discipline and its effects on the dogs’ behaviours.
Ineffective Discipline as a Mediating Variable between Causal Attributions and

Reported Behaviour Problems
As described above, causal attributions of behaviour may be associated with behaviour

problems. However, causal attributions could have an indirect relationship with behaviour
problems, that is, causal attributions could affect ineffective discipline, which in turn affects
reported behaviour problems (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Causal Attributions are Related to Reported Behaviour Problems through

the Influence of Ineffective Discipline.
Causal Attributions Reported Behaviour Problems
Ineffective
Discipline
In this case, ineffective discipline functions as a mediating variable. According to Baron

and Kenny (1986), a mediating variable provides a means in which the independent variable
can influence the dependent variable.
Results from a previous study showed that discipline styles mediate between maternal
attributions and behaviour problems in children (Nix et al., 1999). There was a significant
relationship between mother’s attribution of hostile intentions to children’s ambiguous
behaviours in vignettes and children’s externalising behaviours in school. Using a structural
equations model, it was discovered that the relationship between mother’s hostile attribution
and children’s externalising behaviour in school was not significant when the effects of
maternal harsh disciplining were not taken into consideration. Hence, disciplining
functioned as a mediator between attributions and behaviour problems in children.
The review of the literature suggests that there is a relationship between causal
attribution, ineffective discipline, and behaviour problems. The research questions of this
study include: Are causal attributions of the dog’s behaviour and ineffective discipline
associated with the dog’s behaviour problems? Also, is there a relationship between causal
attributions and ineffective discipline? Lastly, is ineffective discipline a mediator between

causal attributions and reported behaviour problems in dogs?
To answer the research questions above, four hypotheses will be tested:
1. There is a positive relationship between causal attributions and reported behaviour
problems, where higher causal attributions towards the dog is related to higher
reported behaviour problems.
2. There is a positive relationship between causal attributions and ineffective
discipline, where higher causal attributions towards the dog is related to higher
ineffective discipline.
3. There is a positive relationship between ineffective discipline and reported
behaviour problems, where higher ineffective discipline is related to higher reported
behaviour problems.
4. Ineffective discipline acts as a mediating variable between causal attributions and
reported behaviour problems. Causal attributions towards the dog affect ineffective
discipline, which in turn affects the reported behaviour problems in dogs.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This study involved a single survey using questionnaires. Independent variables consisted of
causal attributions of a dog’s behaviour and dog owners’ use of ineffective discipline. The
dependent variable was the reported behaviour problems in dogs as perceived by the dog
owners. This study also explored if ineffective discipline functions as a mediating variable.
Participants
This study was carried out on a sample of 100 participants. The participants were selected
via convenience sampling. Individuals were approached at pet events, shopping centres,
veterinary clinics, or sought through friends and family members. Participants were from
the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur region. Of the 100 participants, 50 were males and the
remaining 50 were females. The participants must own a dog at the time of participation in
this study. The participants were between the ages of 18 years old and 59 years old (M =
26.10 years, S.D. = 11.62).
Participants reported owning between one to 11 dogs, with the average number of dogs
owned being 2 dogs. The shortest duration of dog ownership was 3 months while the
longest was 58 years (M = 6.83 years). Of the 100 participants, 36 reported that their dogs
received obedience training, 62 reported that their dogs did not receive obedience training,
and 2 did not answer the question. Table 1 shows some additional demographic information
of the participants.
22
Table 1. Demographic Information of Participants

Descriptive Statistics
Variables Frequency Percentage (%)
Gender
Male 50 50
Female 50 50
Race
Chinese 74 74
Indian 19 19
Bumiputera 1 1
Others 4 4
Missing data 2 2
Own Other Pets
Yes 34 34
No 65 65
Missing data 1 1
Measurement Device
In this study, the three different scales used are the Causal Dimension Scale, the Dog
Discipline Scale and the Canine Behaviour Checklist. The questions used in the
questionnaire were chosen based on the results of a pilot test that was conducted on 60
participants prior to this study. The participants were selected via convenience sampling and
consisted of 30 male dog owners and 30 female dog owners from the Selangor and Kuala
Lumpur region.
The Causal Dimension Scale (CDS) was modified by the researcher from the original
CDS scale developed by Russell (1982). The CDS was designed to assess how causes are
perceived by individuals. The causes are then rated along three dimensions which are the
locus of causality, stability, and controllability. From the pilot test, Question 9 was removed
from the original CDS scale. The omission of Question 9 led to an increase in the internal
consistency of the scale. The questions were scored along a 9-point Likert scale with
opposing statements at each end. The total score for each subscale is obtained by summing
the scores for the items within each subscale. A higher score indicates that the cause of the
dog’s behaviour is perceived as internal, stable, and controllable. Based on the pilot test, the
internal consistency of the CDS is 0.46. The internal consistencies of the 3 subscales are
0.62 for Locus of Causality, 0.55 for Stability, and 0.54 for Controllability.
For the Dog Discipline Scale (DDS), the study used an adapted version of the Parenting
Scale (Arnold, O’Leary, Wolff, & Acker, 1993) which is designed to measure dysfunctional
discipline practices in parents with young children. The 30-item Parenting Scale has 3
subscales that are Laxness, Overreactivity, and Verbosity. Each item has a score from 1
(effective) to 7 (ineffective). To obtain a total score, the responses on all items are averaged.
The Parenting Scale has good reliability and validity. The coefficients alpha for Laxness,
Overreactivity, Verbosity, and Total were 0.83, 0.82, 0.63, and 0.84 respectively. Test-retest
correlations were found to be: Laxness (0.83), Overreactivity (0.82), Verbosity (0.79), and
Total (0.84).
From the 30 questions in the original Parenting Scale, 14 questions were selected,
modified, and tested in the pilot test. The Laxness and Overreactivity subscales were each
represented by 7 questions. The same 14 questions that were used in the pilot test were
maintained in the study. The resulting scale consisting of 14 questions was called the Dog
Discipline Scale (DDS). Questions number 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 14 were reversed scored. To
obtain a total score for the DDS, the responses for the 14 questions were averaged. A higher
score indicated more ineffective disciplining by the owner. Based on the pilot test, internal
consistency of the DDS is 0.52.
The Canine Behaviour Checklist (CBC) was obtained from the Handbook of Behaviour
Problems of the Dog and Cat (Landsberg, Hunthausen, & Ackerman, 2003). The handbook
provides the CBC as a measure of behaviour problems in the dog as reported by the dog
owner. There were 23 questions in the CBC and the participants were required to rate each
question based on the severity of the behaviour problems with 0 – none, 1 – exhibits
problem but not a concern, 2 – mild, 3 – moderate, and 4 – severe. Based on the findings of
the pilot test, the CBC was modified to ease understanding and rating by the participants.
The score for all the questions are summed to obtain a total behaviour problem score. The
higher the score, the more behaviour problems in the dog as reported by the owner. Based
on the pilot test, internal consistency of the CBC is 0.88.
RESULTS
Causal Attributions and Reported Behaviour Problems
Pearson correlations were used to determine if there was a relationship between causal
attributions and reported behaviour problems. If the correlations were found to be
significant, a linear regression was carried out.
Locus of Causality and Reported Behaviour Problems
There was no significant relationship between locus of causality and reported behaviour
problems in dogs as reported by dog owners (r = .01, p > .05). See Table 2.
Stability and Reported Behaviour Problems
There was a significant positive relationship between stability and reported behaviour
problems in dogs (r = .26, p < .01). See Table 2. Hence, dog owners who attribute behaviour
problems to be more stable may report more behaviour problems in their dogs. The results
indicates that 6.9% of the variation in the scores of behaviour problems in dogs can be
explained by the variation in stability (Variance = r² = .069 = 6.9%). Conversely, 6.9% of
the variation in stability can be accounted for by the variation in behaviour problems in
dogs.
24
Controllability and Reported Behaviour Problems
There was no significant relationship between controllability and behaviour problems in

dogs as reported by dog owners (r = - .08, p > .05). See Table 2.
Table 2. Correlations between Subscales of Causal Attribution and Reported

Behaviour Problems
LOC Stability Controllability RBP
LOC - .02 .21* .011
Stability - .13 .26**
Controllability - - .08
RBP -
Note.
LOC: Locus of Causality
RBP: Reported Behaviour Problems
*p < .05. **p < .01.
Linear Regression between Stability and Reported Behaviour Problems
It was found that, for every one increase in the ratings of stability, ratings of behaviour
problems increased by 0.80. Confidence limits were narrow, showing that it is 95%
confident that the population slope is between 0.21 and 1.40 [F (1,98) = 7.28, p < .01]. See
Table 3.
Table 3. Regression Analysis for Stability and Reported Behaviour Problems

B SE B Beta
Stability 0.80 0.30 0.26**
**p < .01.
Therefore, among the three measures of causal attributions, only perception of stability
correlated significantly with reported behaviour problems in dogs.
Causal Attributions and Ineffective Discipline
Pearson correlations were used to determine the relationship between causal attributions and
ineffective discipline. If the correlations were found to be significant, a linear regression
was carried out.
Locus of Causality and Ineffective Discipline
There was no significant relationship between locus of causality and ineffective discipline
(r = - .06, p > .05). See Table 4.
Stability and Ineffective Discipline
There was a significant positive relationship between stability and ineffective discipline (r =
.25, p < .05) (Refer to Table 4). Hence, when dog owners attribute behaviour problems to be
more stable, they may use more ineffective discipline. The results indicate that 6.3% of the
variation in the scores of ineffective discipline can be explained by the variation in
attributions of stability (Variance = r² = .063 = 6.3%.). Conversely, 6.3% of the variation in
attributions of stability can be accounted for by the variation in ineffective discipline.
Controllability and Ineffective Discipline
There was no significant relationship between controllability and ineffective discipline (r = -

.02, p > .05). See Table 4.
Table 4. Correlations between Causal Attributions and Ineffective Discipline

LOC Stability Controllability ID
LOC - .02 .21* - 0.06
Stability - .13 0.25*
Controllability - - 0.02
ID -
Note.
LOC: Locus of Causality
ID: Ineffective Discipline
*p < .05.
Linear Regression between Stability and Ineffective Discipline
It was found that, for every one increase in the ratings of stability, ratings of ineffective
discipline increased by 0.03. Confidence limits were narrow, showing that it is 95%
confident that the population slope is between 0.01 and 0.06 [F (1,98) = 6.60, p < .05]. See
Table 5.
Table 5. Regression Analysis for Stability and Ineffective Discipline

B SE B Beta
Stability 0.03 0.01 0.25*
*p < .05.
Therefore, among the three measures of causal attributions, only perception of stability
correlated significantly with ineffective discipline of the dog owners.
26
Ineffective Discipline and Reported Behaviour Problems
A Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between ineffective discipline
and reported behaviour problems. If the correlation was found to be significant, a linear
regression was carried out. There was a significant positive relationship between ineffective
discipline and behaviour problems in dogs as reported by dog owners (r = .54, p < .01). See
Table 6. Hence, when dog owners use more ineffective discipline, they may report more
behaviour problems in their dogs. The results indicate that 29.3% of the variation in the
scores of behaviour problems in dogs can be explained by the variation in ineffective
discipline (Variance = r² = .293 = 29.3%). Conversely, 29.3% of the variation in ineffective
discipline can be accounted for by the variation in behaviour problems in dogs.
Table 6. Correlation between Ineffective Discipline and Reported Behaviour Problems

Ineffective Discipline RBP
Ineffective Discipline - .54**
RBP -
Note.
RBP: Reported Behaviour Problems
**p < .01.
Linear Regression between Ineffective Discipline and Reported Behaviour Problems
It was found that, for every one increase in the ratings of ineffective discipline, ratings of
behaviour problems increased by 12.21. Confidence limits were narrow, showing that it is
95% confident that the population slope is between 8.41 and 16.02 [F (1,98) = 40.51, p <
.01]. See Table 7.
Table 7. Regression Analysis for Ineffective Discipline and Reported Behaviour

Problems
B SE B Beta
Ineffective Discipline 12.21 1.92 0.54**
**p < .01.
Therefore, ineffective discipline correlated significantly with reported behaviour problems

in the dogs.
Ineffective Discipline as a Mediating Variable between Causal Attribution and

According to Baron and Kenny (1986), the basic conditions necessary in order to test for a
mediating relationship is as follows: (1) there must be a significant relationship between the
independent variable and the mediator variable, (2) there must be a significant relationship
between the mediator and the dependent variable, and (3) there must be a significant
relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable.
In this study, the conditions of Baron and Kenny (1986) are fulfilled because stability
was significantly correlated with ineffective discipline and reported behaviour problems. In
addition, ineffective discipline was significantly correlated with reported behaviour
problems. Therefore, analyses were conducted to determine if ineffective discipline is a
mediating variable between stability and reported behaviour problems.
Using Hierarchical Multiple Regression to Determine the Mediating Effect of

Ineffective Discipline
It was found that when ineffective discipline was added to stability, which was significant
when used alone to predict reported behaviour problems, stability was no longer significant
(t = 1.56, p > .05). This shows that without the influence of ineffective discipline, stability is
not significantly related to reported behaviour problems. Therefore, ineffective discipline
serves as a mediator between stability and reported behaviour problems (see Table 8).
Table 8. Regression Analysis for Stability and Ineffective Discipline with Reported
Behaviour Problems
B SE B Beta
Model 1
Stability 0.80 0.30 0.26**
Model 2
Stability 0.42 0.27 0.14
Ineffective Discipline 11.44 1.97 0.51**
**p < .01.
Using Preacher and Hayes’ SPSS macro to determine the mediating effect of
ineffective discipline
The macro (Preacher & Hayes, 2004) provides the unstandardised coefficient values for the
regression of the three variables: reported behaviour problems (Y), stability (X), and
ineffective discipline (M). The total effect of stability on reported behaviour problems,
b(YX), is 0.80 (p < .01). The effect of stability on ineffective discipline, b(MX), is 0.03 (p <
.05). The effect of ineffective discipline on reported behaviour problems, b(YM .X) is 11.44
(p < .01). Finally, the direct effect of stability on reported behaviour problems, controlling
for the mediator, b(YX .M), is 0.42 (p > .05). See Table 9. It can be seen that a previously
significant relationship between stability and reported behaviour problems is no longer
significant when ineffective discipline is controlled (0.80** to 0.42). Therefore, ineffective
discipline is a mediator between stability and reported behaviour problems.
28
Table 9. Direct and Total Effects Between Stability, Ineffective Discipline, and
Unstandardised Coefficient t Sig
b(YX) 0.80** 2.70 0.008
b(MX) 0.03* 2.57 0.012
b(YM .X) 11.44** 5.81 0.000
b(YX .M) 0.42 1.56 0.123
Note.
Y – Reported Behaviour Problems
X – Stability
M – Ineffective Discipline
*p < .05. **p < .01.
In summary, both the hierarchical multiple regression and Preacher and Hayes’ (2004) SPSS
macro demonstrate that ineffective discipline is a mediator between stability and reported
DISCUSSION
This study set out to explore if causal attributions have effects on both reported behaviour
problems in dogs and ineffective discipline of dog owners. It also investigated the
relationship between ineffective discipline and reported behaviour problems. Lastly, this
study investigated the possible role of ineffective discipline as a mediator between causal
attributions and reported behaviour problems in dogs.
The results obtained lend support to some of the proposed hypotheses. Among the three
measures of causal attributions, only stability correlated significantly with reported
behaviour problems and ineffective discipline. Ineffective discipline was also found to
correlate significantly with reported behaviour problems. Lastly, ineffective discipline was
shown to be a mediator between stability and reported behaviour problems
Effects of locus of causality and controllability were not evident in this study, contrary
to the significant findings of MacBrayer, Milich, and Hundley (2003), as well as Dix, Ruble,
and Zambarano (1989) who studied the influence of parental attribution on behaviour
problems and disciplining respectively. This could have been due to the fact that those
researches involved measured the locus of causality and controllability in humans whereas
this study looked at these variables in dogs. The locus of causality and controllability are
concerned with whether the cause is internal to the dogs and whether the dogs have control
over the cause. These involve attributing cognitive processes to a certain extent and
individuals may have difficulty ascribing cognitive processes to the dogs on a level similar
to humans. When human and animal similarities were highlighted, individuals, especially
those with lower self-esteem, tended to have more negative attitudes towards the animal
(Beatson & Halloran, 2007). This shows that individuals do not equate animals on a similar
level as humans and in fact strive to maintain a level of control over the animals.
In relating to anthropomorphism, individuals were said to ascribe human-like qualities
to non-human animals (Serpell, 2002). Therefore, dog owners should attribute thought,
feeling, intention, and human mental processes to their dogs. However, the findings of this
study indicate that this may not be the case. While individuals do ascribe human-like
qualities to their dogs, this association may be on a very physical level. For instance,
although dogs may be given names that are similar to humans (such as Jack or Oliver)
and/or dressed up with clothing and pampered at saloons and restaurants and owners may
treat their dogs like humans, this occurs on a very superficial level and not on a cognitive
level.
On the other hand, perception of stability may have yielded significant results because
dog owners find ratings of permanence an easier concept to grasp. While they may have
difficulty assigning higher mental processes to their dogs, they may better understand the
concept of stability. This factor merely taps on whether the behaviour problems are thought
to be permanent or would change over time.
The third hypothesis of this study was supported as it was shown that ineffective
discipline was related to higher reported behaviour problems. More importantly, the fourth
hypothesis was also supported as ineffective discipline was found to be a mediator between
perception of stability and reported behaviour problems. This shows that when dog owners’
perceive the behaviour problems to be stable over time, they are likely to use more
ineffective discipline. A higher use of ineffective discipline in turn relates to higher reported
The results obtained in terms of perception of stability are consistent with Weiner’s
(1985) theory of attribution. The theory proposes that individuals seek to explain the
outcomes of events. These explanations can affect an individual’s thoughts, emotions, and
actions. When dog owners are confronted with dogs’ behaviour problems, they may have
negative reactions and try to find causal explanations for the dogs’ behaviours. When these
causes are perceived to be stable over time, owners are likely to believe that the behaviour
problems would constantly be repeated in the future. According to Weiner, perceptions of
stability can lead directly to behavioural consequences (use of ineffective discipline as a
coping method). It can also result in emotional consequences that subsequently lead to
behavioural consequences (feelings of helplessness which leads to ineffective discipline).
The use of ineffective discipline is further related to more reported behaviour problems,
consistent with findings in parent-child relationships (McKee et al., 2007; Jewell, Krohn,
Scott, Carlton, & Meinz, 2008).
In this study, dog owners could also have affected their dogs’ behaviours through self-
fulfilling prophecies, that is, the owners believe that their dogs’ behaviour problems are
permanent and disciplining will not result in any change. Since they perceive that the dogs’
behaviours will not change, they do not put in effort to discipline their dogs and resort
instead to excessively lax or overreactive methods. The ineffective discipline will have short
term effects, but will ultimately lead to the dogs developing and maintaining more
behaviour problems thereby confirming the owners’ initial false belief.
The link between perceptions of stability and ineffective discipline could also have
occurred because of perception biases that may overemphasise the behaviour problems.
When dog owners’ perceive the behaviour problems to be stable, the negative behaviours
become more salient and overshadow other behaviours. This results in dog owners feeling
overwhelmed and subsequently resigned to the fact that they have little or no control over
their dogs’ behaviours. This may also lead to low levels of self-efficacy as owners feel
incompetent and unable to handle their dogs’ behaviours. When they perceive low control
or have low self-efficacy, they are more likely to resort to whatever means possible, such as
30
ineffective discipline to manage their dogs. As shown by Sanders and Woolley (2005),
mothers’ low confidence in handling child behaviour problems (low self-efficacy) was
significantly related to the use of lax or overreactive discipline methods. In the owner-dog
context, dog owners who feel that their dogs have many behaviour problems will become
overwhelmed and have low perceived control. They may then resort to ineffective discipline
which has short-term effects but can boost their feelings of control and efficacy temporarily.
In the long run, this would only lead to more behaviour problems in the dogs.
Although this study revealed some significant relationships between attributions,
ineffective discipline and behaviour problems in dogs, there are some limitations that should
be considered. As there are limited available scales in the field of animal studies, the scales
to measure causal attributions and ineffective discipline of dog owners had to be adapted
from scales used in human research. This resulted in a need to modify some of the items in
the original scales and hence questions may arise on the appropriateness of the scales in the
context of owner-dog relationships. In a bid to address the issue of scale aptness, a factor
analysis was conducted during the pilot test and internal consistencies were also determined
for each scale. The findings reveal that although the internal consistencies were low, the
scales are still acceptable and can be used in the owner-dog context.
Another important point to note is that there was no control over the breed, size and age
of the dogs. Certain breeds of dogs may demand more affection while others may need more
physical interaction. Different breeds of dogs may also be perceived to have different
temperaments, which may influence an owner’s interaction with the dog and perceptions of
the dog’s behaviour problems. However, due to limited time, this study could not provide a
control for the characteristics of the dogs as it would be difficult to find dogs of exactly the
same breed and age.
As this is a study of correlational design, causal relationships should not be inferred
from the results. However, this study provides a glimpse of how these variables are
connected and it is encouraging to discover that there is a relationship between perceptions
of stability, ineffective discipline, and reported behaviour problems in dogs.
Future research should be directed towards examining other factors that influence
owner-pet relationships. This could include the effects of gender on the perceptions and
behaviours of dog owners, participation of multiple-raters or behavioural observations and
determining personality traits and characteristics of owners.
In conclusion, dog owners who reported more behaviour problems in their dogs also
reported higher perceptions of the behaviour being permanent and a higher use of
ineffective discipline. More interestingly, it was discovered that their perception of the
behaviour problems being permanent resulted in the use of more ineffective discipline. This
then resulted in more reported behaviour problems in the dogs. These findings are very
encouraging as they suggest that targeting perceptions and behaviours of owners are
avenues of intervention in reducing the behaviour problems in dogs. Ultimately, it is hoped
that a reduction in behaviour problems in dogs can reduce the number of abandoned dogs,
and improve and sustain the owner-dog relationship thereby affording benefits to both
parties.
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HILL RECREATIONAL AND SERVICES VALUATION:

A CASE STUDY OF TAMAN MELAWATI HILL
PEK CHUEN KHEE

Nottingham University Business School
The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
Jalan Broga 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +60(3)89248000
Fax: +60(3)89248001
chuen.pek@nottingham.edu.my
TEE CHEE HOONG

Faculty of Economics and Management
Universiti Putra Malaysia
NG PHUAY YING
Faculty of Economics and Management
Universiti Putra Malaysia
ABSTRACT
This study estimates the economic values of household preference for preservation and conservation of hill
recreational and services values in Malaysia. The Contingent Valuation technique is employed on 100 randomly
selected households in the vicinities of Taman Melawati Hill. The study finds that hill preservation is important
and the public is willing to pay for initiatives to mitigate further degradation to this ecosystem. More
specifically, the study ascertains that households on average are willing to donate MYR92.40 per annum to the
trust fund for hill mitigation management initiatives. This value conveys a total economic value of MYR51.6
million per annum, based on the Selangor state population who are willing to pay for the mitigation cause. This
substantial value can help policy makers to identify any mismatch between what the public actually demands and
are willing to pay for and the degradation to the supply due to modern developments.
Key words: willingness-to-pay, hill recreational and services values, contingent valuation
INTRODUCTION
Hills and forests do not only provide mankind with numerous positive environmental effects
but recreational values as well. They provide natural flood mitigation, watershed protection,
habitats for animals, flora and fauna, and help minimize air pollution. These endowments
too could serve as good recreational sites for nature lovers at zero costs, as they are public
goods by origin.
Malaysia has a total forest area of 20,890,000 hectares, which covers 63.6 percent of
the total land area. In the recent years, this encouraging figure has been declining at an
annual rate of 0.7 percent based on the statistics of 2000 to 2005. The continuation of this
downward trend may jeopardize the existence of the world’s oldest natural heritage if left
34
unchecked. Though there are some active reforestation projects in the country, the rate of
deforestation has been higher, exacerbated by many illegal logging activities.
With higher levels of education and awareness of the importance of hills and forests,
the demand for more trees and green spaces is rising in the country. The robust economic
growth in the recent years has increased the living standards with better disposable incomes.
These have partially boosted leisure time and pursuits of environmental recreation like hill
and beach outings.
In Malaysia, there are many famous hills which are suitable for recreation and eco-
tourism, such as Cameron Highlands, Penang Hill, Maxwell Hill, Broga Hill and many
others. In the recent years imbalanced agricultural developments in parts of Cameron
Highlands and Penang Hill have caused these hills to lose some of their unique
characteristics as the natural habitats of many species of flora and fauna, and also their cool
temperatures. The consequences of uncontrolled damage to these hills clearly suggest the
urgent need for immediate government interventions. The government has several laws and
regulations, like the National Forest Policy and National Forestry Act, to protect the hills
and forests but a lack of strict implementation has allowed many irresponsible companies
and individuals to slip through the laws and systems.
While the Malaysian economy expands confidently, the opportunity cost is the cutting
of hills and forest areas to provide space for development and building materials. Of late,
hasty developments and expansions have degraded or wiped out huge hectares of green
spaces. Some prominent examples of these activities are the hill-cutting on Penang’s North
Coast for Development and Reclamation areas, forest clearance for infrastructure-building
in Kundasang, Sandakan, and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and the Federal Hill in Selangor. A
more recent example is the forest clearance to make way for the construction of a new
highway along the Klang Gates Quartz Ridge, which is one of the world’s greatest
geological formations. These irresponsible hills and forests cuttings have resulted in the loss
of human lives and properties in several cases of landslides like the Kapit, Sarawak
landslide, the Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur landslide and the Bukit Antarabangsa, Selangor
landslide. All these landslides are directly or indirectly linked to excessive or improperly
planned hills cuttings.
There have been calls from many quarters of the public for better controls and the
banning of hill-cutting projects due to the harm they bring to human lives and the
ecosystem. In order to arrest the damages and develop an integrated and lasting green space
blueprint, new strategies need to be developed by the local authorities. However,
environmental projects are always losing out in competition with other socio-economic
activities for a share of scarce annual budgets. In this respect, a more informed study of the
importance of hills and forests may give environmental projects an extra edge. This could be
done by estimating the monetary values of green lungs which offer a worldwide and
concrete basis to justify the costs incurred in their protection, and to put up fair competition
with other demands for policy and financial support.
Recreational services and opportunities are vital human-use services. There are
numerous indirect and intangible benefits of recreational areas which are non-market
products but could be favorably decoded into monetary terms. The public can appreciate the
contributions of these environmental services by validating some resources for the
conservation and preservation of these green spaces. These contributions would serve as a
good shadow price for the environmental resources as the willingness-to-pay for
conservation and preservation would show the value the public places on them.
Nevertheless, a deep understanding of residents’ recreational behaviors and the fundamental
factors that influence them holds the promise of effective planning, design and upkeep of
these green spaces.
Given the said background, this paper intends to elicit the public’s appreciation for the
hill by decoding it into monetary terms through capturing their willingness-to-pay (WTP) to
preserve and conserve this pristine piece of natural heritage. It is also the intention of this
study to estimate its total economic value (TEV) and factors that may influence the WTP for
hill recreations.
The Malaysian Hills: Taman Melawati Hill as the Case Study
This paper has selected Taman Melawati Hill as the case study to illustrate the elicitation of
WTP and estimation of the TEV. Taman Melawati Hill, located in Kuala Lumpur, is a
recreation park excellent for picnics and exercise for residents living in the vicinities of
Taman Permata, Taman Melawati, Wangsa Melawati, Wangsa Maju, Bukit Antarabangsa
and Kemensah Heights. It is the last remaining green lung in Taman Melawati. Much of this
hill is still covered in remnant lowland/hill forest, which is very rare in the highly urbanized
areas of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. The forest of this hill represents a fine example of
remnant forest and refuge for fauna and flora in the Klang Valley and the Ampang-Ulu
Klang areas.
Despite its urban location, Taman Melawati Hill is exceptionally rich in flora and
fauna, with five species of mammals, about 67 species of birds (resident and migrant) and
seven species of herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles, including three species of snakes).
These also include two species of monkeys, the dusky leaf monkey (Trachypithecus
obscurus) and long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis). The dusky leaf monkey is a
totally protected species under the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972 in Malaysia. Taman
Melawati Hill is perhaps the only green urban area with a healthy population of dusky leaf
monkeys remaining in the Klang Valley.
Taman Melawati Hill is also an important migration site for raptors (birds of prey)
migrating from northern Asia to Malaysia and other countries in South-east Asia. Raptor
migration research has been carried out at Taman Melawati Hill since 1999, where
thousands of raptors have been observed migrating over the site. Some of the raptors use the
hill as an important resting and roosting area during their long and tiring journey.
Some of the unique and interesting plants found at Taman Melawati Hill include
Baeckia frutescens (cucur atap), pitcher plant (Nepenthes sp.), Hanguana malayana, fig
trees, ru (Fragrae sp.) and Alstonia (pulai) species. It is suspected that some unique plants
from the Klang Gates Quartz Ridge have germinated and established populations on Taman
Melawati Hill. These unique plants have a good potential for the horticulture industry and
will ease pressure of over collection from the Klang Gates Quartz Ridge. The appendix
shows some photographs of the wild animals and flora and fauna found in Taman Melawati
Hill. In addition, the forest on the hill maintains the local microclimate and
contributes to the cooling of the surrounding environment. It also prevents hill
surface run-offs and the pollution of waterways and rivers.
36
While Taman Melawati Hill maintains its serenity, there have been proposals for
housing developments in its vicinities. Since it already has had areas with recorded earth
movement and several cases of landslide between 2005 and 2007, further developments may
have to be minimized. Further housing developments may degrade the recreational areas,
flora and fauna, and bring harm to animals and human lives and properties. In addition, the
developments may damage the ecological heritage which could be preserved for the future
generations. These threats have caused concerns for the residents living in the area and
green lovers in the country.
The choice between hill development and hill preservation can be made clearer if
public appreciation of the hill is monetized and used as an additional piece of information
by the policy makers. Monetizing environmental goods and services is made possible
through valuation techniques using implicit or simulated markets. The premise of these
techniques is based on the idea that consumers are willing to trade off other goods or
income in order to enjoy improved environmental quality. This phenomenon should convey
to policy-makers that environmental quality, though a non-market good, has economic
values.
Monetizing Non-market Goods and Services Using Valuation Methodologies
The economic concept of value provides the foundation for neoclassical welfare economics,
and expresses the magnitude to which a good or service satisfies the preferences of
consumers. Hence, the estimation of the economic value can be obtained by the willingness
to pay (WTP) for such goods or services or the willingness to accept (WTA) as a
compensation for sacrificing the good or service. Both these willingness can be revealed in
business transactions in the market, which automatically reveals their value. The market,
however, is only capable of revealing one component of the total economic value (TEV),
which is the direct use values, i.e. the WTP or WTA for only actual use of the good or
service. The other values such as indirect use values and non-use values, which make up the
TEV, however, would have to be estimated using environmental valuation techniques.
Use value is the present or future benefits derived from the use of the environmental
goods and services. This value is further categorized into direct use values and indirect use
values. Direct use value is the benefits obtained through direct use of the environmental
commodity. This kind of use value can be consumptive (e.g. hunting and collection of
medicinal plants in the forest, and wood sales from wetlands) or non-consumptive (e.g.
observing tigers in national parks, photography and ecotourism). The sightings of fireflies at
the Kuala Selangor Fireflies and Nature Park (Jamal, 2000), and sightings of rare birds
species at the Putrajaya Wetland Park (Alias & Juwaidah, 2005) are examples of direct use
values. Indirect use values are benefits derived indirectly from the environmental
commodities, for example, the water retention role of hills, softening impact of tsunami by
mangrove forests and natural habitats of wild animal and plant life.
Non-use values are benefits (or costs) gained (or incurred) not directly from the
consumption of environmental good and services, but by acknowledging the presence of
those environmental commodities and feeling good (uncertain) about it. These values
include also the knowledge of bequest where these commodities can be enjoyed by the
future generations. Thus, non-use values comprise both the existent values and bequest
values. For example, the existent and bequest values can be illustrated by the WTP to
conserve a hill in order to maintain its serenity and green vista for the present and future
generations.
There is a variety of non-market valuation methods that could be employed to value the
elements in the TEV framework. These techniques with their own characteristics and
capabilities can be grouped into the following three approaches and the respective methods
are shown in the parentheses: the Market-based approach (e.g. Productivity, Damage cost
avoided, Replacement cost and Substitute cost) with valuation done on actual market values
observed in the markets, the Surrogate market approach (e.g. Travel cost and Hedonic
pricing), where valuation is based on inferences about the value of environmental
commodities influenced by people’s attitudes and how it changes when the environmental
quality changes, and the Constructed market approach (e.g. Contingent valuation and
Choice model) where valuation is based on a surrogate market by directly asking people for
their preferences and valuation of proxy market conditions and the reaction of market agents
under different circumstances.
METHODOLOGY
The monetization of the economic benefits of environmental commodities is based on the

neo-classical principles of welfare economics (Bergstrom & Stoll, 1989). The welfare
principle allocates available resources as efficiently as possible to attain Pareto efficient or
at least Pareto improvement. The procedure to estimate the economic benefits of ecosystems
and biodiversity draws on the measures of these welfare changes. These measures are
known as equivalent surplus (ES) or compensating surplus (CpS) reflected by the public’s
WTP. The two surpluses are variations of welfare measures besides the commonly used
consumer surplus (CS). Since the objective of this study is to elicit the public’s appreciation
to stop further degradation to the recreational services of Taman Melawati Hill, the ES
(WTP) is estimated.
Contingent Valuation
To elicit the ES (WTP) of the hill, the contingent valuation (CV) technique is employed. CV
is an economic and environmental valuation technique which uses a surrogate market by
directly eliciting consumers’ preferences and WTP for some proposed market conditions
which offer potential improvements or avoid potential damages. It is grouped under the
family of non-market environmental valuation stated preference technique, which aims to
quantify the environmental goods or services of non-market attributes (e.g. improved waste
disposal technology or water sanitation) into monetary or market values. CV elicits the
maximum WTP of individual respondent to obtain improvement or avoid damages on
environmental goods and services in a hypothetical market (Stellar, Stoll & Chavas, 1985;
Bergstrom & Stoll, 1989).
The CV technique has been widely used to estimate WTP due to its flexibility in
application, allowing it to value almost everything. It can even value goods and services
with no observable behavior but which are easily understood and identified by respondents.
The direct approach of eliciting the WTP through survey interviews to obtain improvement
38
or abstain from degradation of environmental goods and services provides defensible

estimates which are easy to analyze and describe. CV is famously used to value total
economic value, including the use and non-use values of an environmental good or service.
CV has been used to value public goods and biodiversity in all facets, like wilderness and
landscape preservation and biodiversity (Adam et al., 2008; Broberg & Brannlund, 2007;
Lee & Mjelde, 2007; Sattout, Talhouk & Caligari, 2007; Amirnejad, Khalilian, Assareh &
Ahmadian, 2006; Cho, Newman & Bowker, 2005; Lienhoop & MacMillan, 2005; Barnes,
Schier & Rooy, 1997; Kramer & Mercer, 1997), preservation of historical artifacts
(Whitehead & Finney, 2003; Chambers, Chambers & Whitehead, 1996), water quality
(Blaine & Smith, 2006; Tapvong & Kruavan, 2003; Du, 2003), wetlands (Chang, Yoo &
Kwak, 2004; Jamal, Bennett & Blamey, 2004), recreational services (Dayang Affizzah,
Alias & Siti Baizura, 2006; Alias & Juwaidah, 2005).
Although CV has been widely used in economic valuation, critics are skeptical of its
ability to accurately and adequately measure the WTP for any environmental goods or
services (Diamond & Hausman, 1994). However, the CV results can be reliable if the
recommendations reported by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
(NOAA) Panel are closely followed. The validity and accuracy of CV can be further
enhanced by respondents’ familiarity with the issues at hand and with interviews conducted
by well-trained interviewers (Yoo & Kwak, 2009). This paper follows these conditions as
closely as possible to ensure reliability of the findings.
The Proposed Policy
This study proposes a preservation and conservation scheme for Taman Melawati Hill to
maintain its current state and mitigate any degradation to its ecological system. A Taman
Melawati Hill Trust Fund will be set up and governed by a trustee under the umbrella of a
non-governmental body in the country. This fund will aid conservation projects in
sustaining the hill’s natural capacity for flood mitigation watershed protection and air
pollution mitigation and as a habitat for animals, flora and fauna. The fund will also help to
maintain and upgrade basic infrastructures in the hill area.
The WTP of the public towards this trust fund would reveal their appreciation of the
hill’s recreational and services values. These values can serve as valuable information for
policy-makers especially the state government and local council in approving future
developmental projects in this area.
Questionnaire Design and Survey
The CV questionnaire consists of three main parts focusing on the environmental attitudes
and concerns of the respondents, the CV question and socioeconomic characteristics of the
respondents. The households at the hill area are the unit of analysis for this study.
Before the CV question was presented to the respondents, a description of the survey
site was given and the proposed policy to stop degradation of the ecosystem was explained.
The interviewees were asked introductory questions such as the ranking of a series of
socioeconomic and environmental issues according to importance, their involvement in
environmental organizations, and activities they normally do at the hill area.
After the interviewers had explained the ecological contributions of the hill to the
respondents, pictures of flora and fauna and wild animals found at Taman Melawati Hill
were shown. This served to give a clearer understanding of the potential loss that would
result from future degradation of the hill to the interviewees.
The respondents were then informed of the proposed policy and were asked to reveal
their maximum WTP into a trust fund for preservation and conservation of the hill. The
open-ended CV format was used in this study and it allowed respondents the full autonomy
to state their maximum WTP. Enumerators were warned not to influence the respondents in
choosing the values of WTP to minimize “starting-point” bias. The respondents were told
explicitly that if they decided to make a contribution to the proposed plan, it would mean
reducing their disposal income. If they were willing to donate, they would have to make
their monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annual contribution through direct debit of their
banking accounts or credit cards. The respondents were then asked for their maximum
WTP.
Open-ended questionnaires do not constraint respondents’ answers because no category
is given (Whitehead & Finney, 2003). Responses to open-ended questionnaires appeared not
to be biased (O’Conor, Johannesson & Johansson, 1999) and are likely to yield lower
estimates of central tendency and smaller standard errors (Boyle et al., 1996). The pen-
ended approach remains a common method to adopt a conservative approach in relation to
the application of the findings to policy making although it undervalues the environmental
goods or services (Cummings, Brookshire & Schulze, 1986). However, it is recognized that
the open-ended CV would put pressure on the respondents to state their WTP and this gives
rise to high level of protest bids (Yoo & Kwak, 2009). However, to minimize this concern,
enumerators were told to give sufficient time and space for the respondents to think
carefully of their WTP.
The CV question posed to the respondents followed that of the conventional question
used in past studies; “What is the maximum amount that you are willing to donate to the
Taman Melawati Hill Trust Fund for conservation and preservation projects?” (Please refer
to Appendix A).
Following the key WTP question, socio-demographic information about the
respondents and their households were recorded. These include asking questions about age,
gender, household income and other items.
Survey interviews were done on 100 households at the hill area. The interviews were
conducted on heads of households, normally the father, or in his absence, the mother or any
adults in the family who had purchasing decision and income. Otherwise, the household
would be skipped.
The finalization of the questionnaire was done after a pre-test was conducted to check
if the questions and proposed policy could be understood and were acceptable. After taking
the feedback into consideration, improvements were made to the questionnaire before the
actual survey was launched.
The survey was conducted by face-to-face interviewing as other methods, such as mail
or telephone interviews, could not allow the interviewers to explain the actual issue in detail
and clearly to the interviewees. Face-to-face interviews were anticipated to obtain more
accurate and complete responses. The average time to complete the questionnaire was about
20 to 30 minutes. The interviewers were properly trained through mock interviews and they
40
visited the survey sites to help them to understand the location before the actual surveys
were administered.
Concerns of Using Contingent Valuation
CV respondents may not be familiar with the environmental goods posed to them for WTP
elicitation. This information bias would influence their stating of the true monetary values.
Besides, these respondents may have just revealed their opinions based on the scenario
given to them rather than expressing value for the goods. Respondents may state agreement
to WTP to show their support for environmental protection in terms of preservation and
conservation, but not the monetary values they give to the environmental good itself. In the
interview process, enumerators reminded the respondents on this issue to minimize the bias.
This valuation technique is posed with several issues of biases. Hypothetical bias
occurs when the actual payments by the respondents are lower than the hypothetical values
pledged (List & Gallet, 2001). The choice of payment vehicles like taxes, annual house
assessment or even direct debit from respondents’ credit cards may minimize this bias as
they would have to honor the value they pledged. Strategic bias occurs when CV
respondents supply answers which are biased in order to influence some outcomes of their
personal agenda. The interviewers can only try to minimize this bias by constantly
reminding the respondents that the proposed policy should be of public interest and general
welfare.
MODEL SPECIFICATION AND RESULTS
The WTP is regressed on the socio-economic variables using the ordinary least square
(OLS) model to reveal the mean WTP and identify factors that significantly explained WTP.
The model specification is as follows:
ln WTP = α + β1U + β2ENV + β3G + β4lnA + β5M + β6R + β7O + β8TP + β9EDU
+ β10 lnINC
where U= user of recreational services of the hill, ENV= member of environmental
organization, G= gender, A= age, M= marital status, R= race, O= occupation, TP= type of
profession, EDU= educational level and INC= monthly household income.
WTP Responses and Findings
The descriptive statistics of the respondents are shown in Table 1 for a better understanding
of the sample interviewed.
The respondents ranked environment at the middle level of importance with crime
protection as the top concern and defense as the lowest concern among the eight socio-
economic objectives. However, interestingly, concern for hill preservation was ranked at the
higher end among the eight environmental issues. This shows that while environment may
not be an important concern, hill preservation is still of importance to the public. Table 2
shows the ranking of the importance of socio-economic indicators and Table 3 shows the
ranking of concern of environmental issues. The ranking is based on a lower mean at a
higher ranking on a scale of 1 to 8.
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Respondents

Variable Average Mean
User of recreational services User 0.62
Member of environmental organization Non-member 0.23
Gender Female 1.4
Age 44 3.79
Marital status Married 1.8
Race Chinese 1.97
Occupation Own business 3.37
Type of profession Professionals 0.82
Educational level Tertiary first degree 4.23
Monthly household income MYR7,500 2.08
Table 2. Ranking of Socio-economic Objectives

Socio-economic indicators Mean
Crime protection 2.75
Public education 2.98
Poverty 3.85
Unemployment 4.20
Environment 4.39
Public health services 4.44
Housing 5.90
Defense 7.44
Table 3. Ranking of Environmental Issues

Socio-economic indicators Mean
Water pollution 2.67
Air pollution 2.83
Preservation of hills 3.97
Deforestation 4.45
Solid waste management 4.53
Landslides 4.79
Extinction of wild plants/animals 6.05
Noise pollution 6.67
Analysis of the WTP responses shows that 65 percent agree while 35 percent disagree
to donate to the preservation cause. Those votes which are not WTP are considered as
42
protest bids. In most CV studies, protest bids are excluded from the computation of the
mean WTP as they are not indicative of the respondents ‘true’ values.
The sample mean WTP shows that on average, people are WTP MYR25.00 per month
for the proposed policy of preserving and conserving Taman Melawati Hill. The median
WTP is MYR15.00 and this indicates that the majority of the respondents are supporting the
proposed policy at higher levels of WTP. This can be explained by the nature of the hill
being the last green lung in the area and the implicit values that the hill gives to the public
staying around its vicinities.
Estimation Results and Discussions
The OLS regression results are shown in Table 4 and only three explanatory variables are
significant, namely the user of the hill, gender, and household income. Users of the hill are
WTP 69 percent more for every Malaysian Ringgit donated than non-user. Males are WTP
about 36 percent less for every Malaysian Ringgit pledged than the females. The income
elasticity of WTP is approximately 0.35 from the findings.
Table 4. OLS Regression Estimates

Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob.
C 1.1333 1.4545 0.7792 0.4393
U 0.6911 0.2051 3.3695 0.0014*
ENV 0.1073 0.2162 0.4965 0.6216
G -0.3631 0.1767 -2.0556 0.0447**
A 0.1763 0.4228 0.8757 0.3851
M -0.2514 0.3005 -0.8366 0.4065
R 0.2071 0.1507 1.3744 0.175
O 0.0573 0.1013 0.5659 0.5738
TP -0.0362 0.0995 -0.3643 0.7171
EDU 0.0828 0.0629 1.3163 0.1936
INC 0.3531 0.1383 2.5536 0.0135**
R-squared 0.4737
Adjusted R-squared 0.3763
F-statistic 4.8603
Prob(F-statistic) 0.0000
VIF 1.9000
* denotes statistically significant at the 99 % level of confidence
** denotes statistically significant at the 95 % level of confidence
The adjusted R2 denotes that about 38 percent of variation in WTP is explained by the
independent variables. This model fit is acceptable as a minimum adjusted R2 of 15 percent
is recommended (Mitchell & Carson, 1989). Besides, this model is free from serious
multicollinearity problem as shown by the VIF value. A Ramsey specification test has been
analyzed and the model is found to be free from mis-specification with probability-F value
of 0.077.
The actual mean WTP estimated from the OLS model is MYR92.40 per annum (or
MYR7.70 per month). The estimation is comparable to the findings of related works on
recreational and environmental conservations in Malaysia. A study of Bako Recreational
Park by Dayang Affizzah et al. (2006) reported an individual’s WTP of MYR7.66 per
month.
With the actual mean WTP value, the total economic value (TEV) can be estimated
by multiplying the value with the percentage of respondents who are WTP and total
households in the state of Selangor Darul Ehsan (please refer to Appendix B). According to
the General Report of Population and Housing Census 2000, there are 858, 900 households
in Selangor. This TEV computation is based on the state level where the hill is located.
Thus, the TEV of Taman Melawati Hill is MYR51.6 million per annum. This present value
would be worth MYR93.2 million in 20 years’ time when compounded at a rate of 3
percent. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) adopts this rate as
the social rate of time preference in the computation of future values
SUMMARY AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
The aim of this study is to estimate the economic values of public preferences for
sustainable hill recreational services. Taman Melawati Hill has been used as the case study.
The open-ended CV technique is employed on selected households around the vicinity of
the hill area.
This study has obtained the households’ WTP to preserve and conserve Taman
Melawati Hill from further degradation. In general, households value the proposed policy to
maintain the serenity of the hill. They are willing to donate to the trust fund which will
mitigate any degradation to the hill’s ecological system. This is consistent with the high
ranking of hill preservation as one of the important environmental issues that should be
given more attention.
To obtain this, the model suggests that the average households are WTP approximately
MYR92.40 per annum. This will give the hill a TEV of MYR51.6 million per year and if
compounded for 20 years, a fair time period for hill sustainability initiative, the future value
will be worth MYR93.2 million. The model also shows that usage of the hill recreational
services, gender, and household income are some of the socio-economic variables that
influence the household WTP towards the hill preservation efforts.
This study has demonstrated empirically the demand perspectives of hill recreational
services values. The results from the study can be used by the local municipal council, state
government and interested stakeholders to identify any mismatch between what the public
wants and are WTP for hill recreational services and the desire to exchange the hill for
modern developments. This way, a more comprehensive environmental and development
policy can be identified, planned and implemented by the relevant authorities.
44
Appendix A
The Open-ended Contingent Valuation Question.
Taman Melawati Hill, located at the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur, is exceptionally rich in flora
and fauna and species of mammals and birds. It is also a well-known place for recreational
activities since it is the last green lung of Taman Melawati. Lately, a housing development
project has been planned at the foothill of Taman Melawati Hill. The development may
degrade the environment through land clearance which results in the loss of ecological
heritage, unique flora and fauna, and the biodiversity conservation properties.
Suppose there is a proposed trust fund to preserve Taman Melawati Hill to ensure its
environmental sustainability, are you willing to participate?
If yes, what is the maximum contribution that you are willing to donate to this cause?
RM _____________________ per month.

Appendix B
The following is the formula used to compute the total economic value of Taman Melawati
Hill:
ܶ‫ ݁ݑ݈ܸܽ ܿ݅݉݋݊݋ܿܧ ݈ܽݐ݋‬ሺܶ‫ܸܧ‬ሻ

ܰ‫ݐ ݏݐ݊݁݀݊݋݌ݏܴ݁ ݂݋ ݎܾ݁݉ݑ‬ℎܽ‫ݕܽ݌ ݋ݐ ݈݈݃݊݅݅ݓ ݐ‬
= ‫× ܹܲܶ ݊ܽ݁ܯ‬
ܶ‫ݏݐ݊݁݀݊݋݌ݏܴ݁ ݈ܽݐ݋‬
× ܶ‫݁ݏݑ݋ܪ ݈ܽݐ݋‬ℎ‫ݎ݋݈݃݊ܽ݁ܵ ݊݅ ݈݀݋‬
46
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48
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ITS EFFECTS ON

SATISFACTION OF PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP
YEOH SI HAN
Sunway University
Tel: +60(3)74918622 Ext. 3851
Fax: +60(3)56358633
yeohsh86@yahoo.com
WOO PEI JUN

Sunway University
ABSTRACT
Families and parenting have long been a research concern over the decades. However, little research has been
conducted on the pattern(s) of parental involvement in the Malaysian context. Therefore, this study aims to
investigate the effects of Malaysian young adults’ perceived parental involvement on the satisfaction of parent-
child relationship. A questionnaire survey with Father Involvement Scale, Mother Involvement Scale, and
Satisfaction of Parent-Child Relationship Scale was carried out on 100 male and 100 female local university and
college students aged 18 to 25 years old. The findings show that father expressive and mentoring/advising
involvement, and mother expressive involvement predict a better parent-child relationship. Overall, this study
gives us a better understanding of the dimensions of Malaysians’ parental involvement that promotes better
parent-child relationships.
Key words: parental involvement, satisfaction of parent-child relationship, father, mother.
INTRODUCTION
Families and parenting have long been a research concern over the decades. Nevertheless,
only in recent years have cross-cultural studies of parent-child socialisation been
investigated to understand the diversity of roles that fathers and mothers assume in the
family (Benetti & Roopnarine, 2006; Finley, Mira & Schwartz, 2008; Hossain, Roopnarine,
Rosnah, Shazia & Sombuling, 2007). This research area gained momentum particularly after
the social revolution during the 1960s and the 1970s. The broad social changes appear to
affect and restructure the family forms and parental involvement. Although much research
has been done in the parenting area, very few studies in Malaysia have been conducted to
investigate the differential involvement of the father and the mother to a child’s
development. Therefore, this study aims to study the effects of different dimensions of
parental involvement on the satisfaction of parent-child relationship.
Definitions and Theories: Parental Involvement
Over the years, many researchers have defined parental involvement differently based on the
purpose of each study (e.g., Lamb, Pleck, Charnov & Levine, 1987; Mo & Singh, 2008;
Singh et al., 1995). Singh and colleagues (1995) noted that parental involvement has been
considered a multidimensional construct with multiple domains. A widely used model by
Lamb and colleagues (1987) conceptualised three typologies of involvement: (1) interaction
– a one-to-one interaction with the child including feeding, playing and reading; (2)
accessibility – availability to the child, even if not directly involved; and (3) responsibility –
assuming responsibility for child care and welfare.
During the 1950s, Parsons and Bales (1955) proposed that parental involvement could
be divided according to the parent’s gender: fathers assumed instrumental roles while
mothers assumed expressive roles. Expressive roles include functions such as care-giving,
sharing leisure activities and companionship whereas instrumental roles consist of functions
such as disciplining children and providing income. This division is supported by a
dominant theory of sociology called structure-functionalism (Parsons, 1951). The theory of
structure-functionalism suggested that individuals in society have separate and distinct roles
and the responsibility to complete these roles is necessary for survival. When this concept is
applied in the family, fathers and mothers are expected to function differently in order to
maintain harmony in the family system. Recently, Finley and Schwartz (2004) found a
similar differentiation of parental involvement and have further expanded the two
components (the expressive and instrumental involvements) into three: expressive,
instrumental, mentoring/advising involvements. Young adults’ perceptions of parental
involvement have been found to fit these distinctions (Finley et al., 2008).
Drawing on previous works (Parson & Bales, 1955; Finley et al., 2008; Finley &
Schwartz, 2004), this study defines parental involvement as the parents’ interaction and
engagement in a child’s life, which promotes some aspects of development. This
involvement encompasses three dimensions: (1) expressive involvement – leisure, fun, and
play, companionship, sharing activities/interests, care-giving, and promoting emotional,
social, physical, and spiritual development; (2) instrumental involvement – developing
responsibility and independence, encouraging ethical/moral and career development,
providing income, discipline, being protective, and concern about school or homework; (3)
mentoring/advising involvement – developing competence, mentoring/teaching, advising,
and intellectual development.
Definitions: Satisfaction of Parent-Child Relationship and Related Theory
Weiss’s (1974) theory of social provisions provides a promising conceptual framework of

interpersonal relationship (including parent-child relationship). He theorised that people
generally look for specific types of social support or social provisions in their relationship
with others. He suggested six basic provisions of this relationship: (a) attachment, (b)
reliable alliance, (c) enhancement of worth, (d) social integration, (e) guidance, and (f)
opportunity for nurturance. He further hypothesised that these provisions are obtained
differently in different relationships. For example, a reliable alliance is most often provided
by family members whereas friendships offer provisions associated with a community of
interests such as social integration.
50
As one of the important interpersonal relationships in a person’s life, the parent-child

relationship is commonly described as the socialisation between a parent and child (Sears,
1951). Maccoby (1992) further illustrates “socialisation” as a mutual, reciprocal,
relationship-based enterprise between the parent and the child. Other researchers, on the
other hand, characterise the parent-child relationship based on the level of positive affect,
involvement, communication, identification, anger and resentment (Fine, Moreland &
Schwebel, 1983). Additionally, a recent study by Mo and Singh (2008) measured the parent-
child relationship by using a composite of five items: (1) parents care about you; (2) family
understands you; (3) want to leave home; (4) have fun together and; (5) family pays
attention to you.
It appears that previous parenting studies (e.g., Fine et al., 1983; Mo & Singh, 2008)
were mostly measuring behaviours that contribute to a positive parent-child relationship.
This study, however, intends to measure the “perceived satisfaction” of a parent-child
relationship. Furman and Buhrmester (1985) proposed that satisfaction of a relationship
provides indexes of the overall nature of the relationships. They also suggested that this
perceived satisfaction is important as it may affect subsequent interactions as well as the
attitude towards a person. Based on their 1985 study, satisfaction of a relationship is
measured according to the overall level of satisfaction, happiness and goodness of the
relationship with another person. Therefore, in accordance to Furman and Buhrmester’s
(1985) measures, this study defines satisfaction of a parent-child relationship as the child’s
perception of the level of satisfaction, happiness and goodness in terms of the relationship
with both his/her parents.
Research Evidence: The Effect of Parental Involvement on Satisfaction of a Parent-

Child Relationship
An extensive body of research has provided evidence that a positive parental involvement
has some predictive validity for positive child outcomes, for instance, greater mental health
as adults (Wenk, Hardesty, Morgan & Blair, 1994), more positive school attitudes in
adolescence (Flouri, Buchanan & Bream, 2002), fewer behavioural problems in later
childhood (Aldous & Mulligan, 2002), and better educational outcomes (Flouri & Buchanan,
2004). Other studies also found that a higher level of parental involvement was more prone
to have securely attached infants (Cox, Owen, Henderson & Margand, 1992), and children
who were perceived as being more secure (Caldera, 2004). Furthermore, there is also a link
between parent-child relationships and a child’s positive outcomes. In a recent study by
Hakvoort, Bos, Balen and Hermanns (2010) on a survey of 88 children from 8 to 12 years
old from intact families, revealed that the father-child relationship has a significant effect on
a child’s psycho-social adjustment. The father-child acceptance significantly predicts a
child’s self-esteem while the father-child conflict also plays a significant role in predicting a
child’s problematic behaviour. When the children reported higher levels of acceptance and
affection with their fathers, a higher level of general self-esteem was reported whereas
children who reported higher levels of conflict with their fathers also reported higher levels
of problematic behaviour.
In addition, previous research also found that when there were fewer conflicts and much
affection in the parent-child relationship, the children showed high levels of self-esteem
(Amato & Afifi, 2006; Wilkinson, 2004), low levels of psychological distress (Fishman &
Meyers, 2000), and prosocial behaviour (Schneider, Atkinson, & Tardif, 2001; Sturgess,
Dunn, & Davies, 2001). When the quality of the parent-child relationship was characterised
by less warmth and much conflict, the children were less satisfied with their lives when they
became adults (Nickerson & Nagle, 2004) and showed more externalising problematic
behaviour (Sturgess et al., 2001).
Results from existing studies suggested that parental involvements and parent-child
relationships may be tied to a broad range of positive child outcomes (e.g., Aldous &
Mulligan, 2002; Caldera, 2004; Cox et al., 1992; Fishman & Meyers, 2000; Flouri &
Buchanan, 2004; Flouri, Buchanan & Bream, 2002; Hakvoort et al., 2010; Schneider et al.,
2001; Sturgess et al., 2001;Wenk et al., 1994).
However, many of these studies do not specifically indicate what aspect of parental
involvement is seen to be most important in affecting a parent-child relationship. Therefore,
this study attempts to examine the contributions of perceived parental involvement which
are satisfying in a parent-child relationship. Such work is necessary in order to understand
what dimensions of involvement children perceive as important for a better parent-child
relationship.
Based on the structural division of parental involvement suggested by Parsons and Bales
(1955), in which mothers assume expressive roles while fathers assume instrumental roles,
the present study predicts that children may perceive this trend to be important for a
satisfying parent-child relationship due to social expectations. Eshleman and Bulcroft (2006)
point out that social roles such as parental roles are often reinforced by social norms.
Therefore, children may perceive that the involvement of their parents should live up to the
expectations of society, which then would be considered as adequate. A study by Bouchard
and colleagues (2007) also found that the fathers who rated themselves as fairly satisfied
and competent in their parental involvement have reported to be most frequently involved in
the disciplining of their children and least frequently involved in traditionally feminine tasks
such as helping with house chores. Hence it is also of interest in this study to examine
whether the fathers’ self-perception of their competency and satisfaction in their
involvement is similar to those of their children’s perception. It is hypothesised that, as
compared to the father’s expressive and mentoring/advising involvement, the father’s
instrumental involvement predicts a higher level of satisfaction in a father-child relationship.
Another cross cultural research on adolescents’ perception of mothers’ parenting
strengths and needs revealed that despite the differential attribution of the three racial groups
(i.e. White, Black and Hispanic), the findings implied that the mothers are rated favourably
when they are more involved in expressive involvement (e.g., leisure, fun, and play,
companionship, sharing activities/interests, care-giving, and promoting emotional, social,
physical, and spiritual development). For example, these adolescents reflected a feeling of
satisfaction when their mothers like being with them (companionship), are honest in
expressing feelings to them, teach them to care about others’ feelings (emotional
development), are religious by setting good examples (spiritual development), and are
satisfied with the way they make friends (social development). This study hence predicts
that the mother’s expressive involvement may contribute to a higher level of a child’s
perceived satisfaction in a mother-child relationship.
52
Purpose of the Present Study
The majority of the existing studies of parental involvement focused on Western subjects;
far less research exist on the Asian context. Therefore, this study attempts to shed light on
the dimensions of parental involvement that is viewed to be important in the Asian context
to better understand the expectations of a child in a parental relationship.
Use of Retrospective Reports
The core conceptualisation of this study is parental involvement and satisfaction of parent-
child relationship based on the perception of the children, particularly young adults. It is
believed that rather than the parents’ reported actual behaviour or the quantity of time spent
with the child, the long-term impact that parents have on the child is a function of the child’s
long-term perceptions of parental behaviour (Finley et al., 2008). Studies from Rohner and
his colleagues (Khaleque & Rohner, 2002; Rohner & Britner, 2002; Rohner, Chaille &
Rohner, 1980; Rohner & Veneziano, 2001) revealed that children’s retrospective perception
of paternal acceptance-rejection is uniquely associated with their psychological and
behavioural adjustments.
Young adults are chosen as respondents in this study for the reason that they are no
longer constrained by their parents’ or the court’s legal control, thus they may be free to
speak their mind compared to children or young adolescents (Finley & Schwartz, 2007).
Additionally, they are cognitively more mature and are more subjective in giving their views
or judgment (Perry, 1999). This study foresees that the retrospective approach enables the
young adults to report a “totality” of the parents’ involvement during their childhood and
adolescence development.
Hypotheses
Specifically, this study tested two hypotheses: (1) the father’s instrumental involvement (as
compared to expressive involvement and mentoring/advising involvement) predicts a higher
level of satisfaction in a father-child relationship; and (2) the mother’s expressive
involvement (as compared to instrumental involvement and mentoring/advising involvement)
predicts a higher level of satisfaction in a mother-child relationship.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
A single survey was conducted to obtain the data for this study. Voluntary participants of 18
to 25 years old were approached via convenient sampling. The independent variable consists
of the perceived parental involvement (fathers and mothers) while the dependent variable
was the satisfaction of parent-child relationship.
Participants
The participants consisted of 100 male and 100 female students from public universities (i.e.,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) and a
private university college (Sunway University College) in Malaysia. The students were aged
between 18 and 25 years old (M = 21.07, SD = 1.75). There were 22 Malays (11.0%), 162
Chinese (81.0%), and 16 Indians (8.0%). In terms of religion, there were 22 Muslims
(11.0%), 33 Christians (16.5%), 120 Buddhists (60.0%), 11 Hindus (5.5%) and 14
participants (7.0%) who had other religions (see Table 1). All of the 200 participants (100%)
were from intact families and reported as single. The rationale for recruiting only
participants from intact families is that Parsons and Bales (1955) once stated: In a “normal”
nuclear family with a complement of father, mother and their immediate children, the father
will play the role of the instrumental leader, and the mother will be the expressive leader.
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of the Participants in the Study

Variable Frequency Percentage (%)
Race
Malay 22 11.0
Chinese 162 81.0
Indian 16 8.0
Religion
Muslim 22 11.0
Christian 33 16.5
Buddhist 120 60.0
Hindu 11 5.5
Others 14 7.0
Marital Status
Single 200 100.0
Family Status
Intact 200 100.0
Procedure
A brief explanation of the study was given to the participants and written consents were
obtained. Participants were given approximately 15 minutes to complete the questionnaires.
Participants were also allowed to withdraw from the study at any point of time without
prejudice.
The questionnaire consisted of three sections. Section One had eight demographic
questions designed to elicit information about the subject’s age, gender, race, religion,
current educational status, marital status, family status, and parents’ working status. Section
Two comprised the Father Involvement Scale and the Satisfaction of Father-Child
Relationship Scale whereas Section Three consisted of the Mother Involvement Scale and
the Satisfaction of Mother-Child Relationship Scale.
54
Measurements
Reported Father and Mother Involvement.
Young adults’ reports of father and mother involvement were measured using the Father
Involvement Scale (Finley & Schwartz, 2004) and Mother Involvement Scale (Finley et al.,
2008). These two scales consisted of similar content except for the terms “father” and
“mother” stated accordingly. The scales consisted of 20 domains of parenting (e.g.
intellectual development, providing income, care-giving, discipline etc.) which were
selected from the review and critique by Hawkins and Palkovitz (1999). These domains can
be categorised into three subscales: (1) expressive involvement – care-giving,
companionship, sharing activities, emotional development, social development, spiritual
development, physical development, and leisure, play and fun (i.e. domains 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 13,
15, 20); (2) instrumental involvement – discipline, being protective, providing income,
school/homework, ethical/moral development, developing responsibility, career
development, and developing independence (i.e. domains 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, 19); and (3)
mentoring/advising involvement – intellectual development, developing competence,
mentoring/teaching, and giving advice (i.e. domains 1, 10, 14, 17). A sample item from this
scale reads, “________ developing competence”, for which the participants were required to
provide a reported involvement rating in the left-hand column. The prompt for reported
involvement reads, “How involved was your mother/father in the following areas of your
life and development?”
These scales had excellent internal consistencies (Finley et al., 2008). For the reported
father involvement, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were .91 for expressive involvement, .90
for instrumental involvement, and .88 for mentoring/advising involvement (Finley et al.,
2008). For the reported mother involvement, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were .86 for
expressive involvement, .80 for instrumental involvement, .82 for mentoring/advising
involvement (Finley et al., 2008).
Satisfaction of Parent-child Relationship.
The scale for reported satisfaction of parent-child relationship was taken from The Network
of Relationship Inventory (NRI) (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985). This inventory consists of
30 questions which assess 10 relationship qualities (e.g. affection, intimacy, conflict etc.) for
individuals who have close relationship with the respondents (e.g. mother, father, and
siblings). These 10 relationship qualities consist of three questions each. Satisfaction of
relationship, which is one of the relationship qualities, is used to measure the perceived level
of satisfaction of father- and mother-child relationship in this study. A sample item of this
scale is, “How happy are you with the way things are between you and this person?” Ratings
are done on standard five-point Likert scales. The anchor points are the same on all scales,
ranging from 1 (little or none) to 5 (the most). A high score indicates a higher level of
satisfaction of parent-child relationship. Responses to the three items assessing each
relationship quality were summed for each relationship. Psychometric analyses have
reported good internal consistencies on these scales, with a Cronbach’s alpha of .80 (Furman
& Buhrmester, 1985).
RESULTS
Linear Regression between Reported Parental Involvement and the Satisfaction of

Parent-Child Relationship
To analyse which of the three dimensions of perceived parental involvement predicts the
satisfaction of parent-child relationship, multiple linear regression analyses were conducted.
The dependent variable was the satisfaction of parent-child relationship and the independent
variables were the three dimensions of parental involvement (i.e., expressive, instrumental,
and mentoring/advising).
When it came to the father’s involvement in the father-child relationship, all three
dimensions of perceived father involvement together significantly accounted for 38% of the
variance in predicting the satisfaction of father-child relationship, F (3, 196) = 39.79, p < .01
(see Table 2). Specifically, the father expressive involvement and mentoring/advising
involvement showed the strongest relationship with the satisfaction of a father-child
relationship. This indicates that the more fathers were involved in expressive and
mentoring/advising involvement, the greater level of satisfaction of a father-child
relationship was reported.
Table 2. A Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Dimensions of Reported

Father Involvement in Predicting Satisfaction of Father-Child Relationship (N = 200)
Variable B SE B β
Father Expressive Involvement .53 .12 .36**
Father Instrumental Involvement .14 .13 .10
Father Mentoring/Advising Involvement .26 .12 .21*
Note. R2 = .38 (p < .01)
* p < .05. ** p < .01.
To further delineate the aspects of the father’s expressive and mentoring/advising

involvement in predicting the satisfaction of the father-child relationship, another multiple
linear regression was conducted. For the father expressive involvement, the dependent
variable was the satisfaction of a father-child relationship whereas the independent variables
were the eight aspects of the father’s expressive involvement. The results indicate that all
eight aspects of a father expressive involvement accounted for 41% of the variance in
predicting the satisfaction of a father-child relationship, F (8, 191) = 16.70, p < .01 (see
Table 3). Specifically, the aspects of emotional development, care-giving, and
companionship showed the strongest relationship with the satisfaction of a father-child
relationship. This indicates that the more fathers were involved in the aspects of emotional
development, care-giving, and companionship, the greater level of satisfaction of a father-
child relationship was reported.
56
Table 3. A Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Aspects of Reported

Father Expressive Involvement in Predicting Satisfaction of Father-Child
Relationship (N = 200)
Variable B SE B β
Emotional development .18 .07 .18**
Social development -.04 .06 -.04
Spiritual development .02 .05 .03
Physical development .07 .06 .07
Leisure, fun, play .04 .06 .04
Sharing activities/interest .06 .07 .07
Care-giving .29 .07 .31**
Companionship .22 .07 .23**
Note. R2 = .41 (p < .01)
** p < .01.
For father mentoring/advising involvement, the dependent variable was the satisfaction
of father-child relationship whereas the independent variables were the four aspects of father
mentoring/advising involvement. The results indicated that all four aspects of father
mentoring/advising involvement accounted for 37% of the variance in predicting the
satisfaction of father-child relationship, F (4, 195) = 28.22, p < .01 (see Table 4).
Specifically, the aspects of intellectual development, and mentoring/teaching showed the
strongest relationship with the satisfaction of father-child relationship. This indicates that
the more fathers were involved in the aspects of intellectual development, and
mentoring/teaching, the greater level of satisfaction of a father-child relationship was
reported.
Table 4. A Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Aspects of Reported Father

Mentoring/Advising Involvement in Predicting Satisfaction of Father-Child
Relationship (N = 200)
Variable B SE B β
Intellectual development .42 .07 5.94**
Developing competence -.02 .06 -.37
Mentoring/teaching .21 .06 3.51**
Advising .05 .07 .67
Note. R2 = .37 (p < .01)
** p < .01.
As for the mother’s involvement in the mother-child relationship, all three dimensions
of perceived mother involvement together significantly accounted for 33% of the variance
in predicting the satisfaction of mother-child relationship, F (3, 196) = 32.81, p < .01 (see
Table 5). Specifically, the mother expressive involvement showed the strongest relationship
with the satisfaction of the mother-child relationship. This indicates that the more mothers
were engaged in expressive involvement, the greater level of satisfaction of a mother-child

relationship was reported.
Table 5. A Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Dimensions of Reported

Mother Involvement in Predicting Satisfaction of Mother-Child Relationship
(N = 200)
Variable B SE B β
Mother Expressive Involvement .62 .12 .49**
Mother Instrumental Involvement .14 .15 .12
Mother Mentoring/Advising
-.01 .13 -.00
Involvement
Note. R2 = .33 (p < .01)
** p < .01.
To further delineate the aspects of mother expressive involvement in predicting the

satisfaction of mother-child relationship, another multiple linear regression was conducted.
The dependent variable was the satisfaction of mother-child relationship whereas the
independent variables were the eight aspects of mother expressive involvement. The results
show that all eight aspects of mother expressive involvement accounted for 36% of the
variance in predicting the satisfaction of mother-child relationship, F (8, 191) = 13.60, p
< .01 (see Table 6). Specifically, the aspects of companionship and sharing activities or
interests showed the strongest relationship with the satisfaction of mother-child relationship.
This indicates that the more mothers were involved in companionship and sharing activities
or interests, the greater level of satisfaction of a mother-child relationship was reported.
Table 6. A Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Aspects of Reported Mother

Expressive Involvement in Predicting Satisfaction of Mother-Child Relationship
(N = 200)
Variable B SE B β
Emotional development .07 .07 .08
Social development -.03 .07 -.04
Spiritual development .10 .06 .12
Physical development .10 .06 .12
Leisure, fun, play .02 .07 .02
Sharing activities/interest .15 .08 .17*
Caregiving .06 .08 .05
Companionship .27 .07 .30**
Note. R2 = .36 (p < .01)
* p < .05. ** p < .01.
58
DISCUSSIONS
The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of different dimensions of parental
involvement on satisfaction of a parent-child relationship.
The results show that a father’s expressive involvement and mentoring/advising
involvement as compared to an instrumental involvement significantly predict greater
satisfaction of a father-child relationship. This finding does not support the first hypothesis
which predicted that the father’s instrumental involvement would have a greater effect on
the satisfaction of a father-child relationship. On the contrary, it appears that even though
fathers perceive satisfaction in their instrumental involvement, as suggested in Bouchard
and colleagues’ (2007) study, children do not necessary see this involvement as an
important contributor to a satisfying relationship with their fathers.
The findings indeed reveal that the more fathers engaged in expressive and mentoring or
advising involvement, the higher the level of satisfaction of the father-child relationship was
reported. Specifically, further analysis on the domains elucidates that when fathers were
more concerned about their children’s emotions, care-giving, accompanying them, guiding
them in intellectual development, and teaching or mentoring them, young adults felt good
about the relationship with their fathers.
When it came to the mother’s involvement in the mother-child relationship, the results
support the second hypothesis and indicate that the mother’s expressive involvement as
compared to instrumental and mentoring/advising involvement significantly predicts a
greater satisfaction of the mother-child relationship. These findings are supported by
Beckert and colleagues’ (2007) study which reveal that a higher level of satisfaction of the
mother-child relationship was perceived when mothers engaged in a more expressive
involvement with their children. Particularly, when their mothers shared activities or
interests and accompanied them, children felt good and were more satisfied about their
relationship with their mothers. These findings are logical seeing that mothers are generally
the main care-givers and might have more time for the children; therefore, children would
expect them to be more involved in companionship and the sharing of activities.
This study has several strengths. Firstly, the scales that are used in this study – the
Father Involvement Scale, the Mother Involvement Scale, and The Network of Relationship
Inventory - have high reliability and validity. Secondly, the questionnaire survey with
closed-ended questions facilitates not only the process of scoring but also results
interpretation. In addition, this study is also one of the few studies that look into the effects
of parental involvement in the satisfaction of a parent-child relationship. Therefore, this
study provides some base level data for local parenting research and for future comparison.
In particular, the use of the retrospective report in this study provides uniquely valuable
information regarding the young adults’ long-term perception of parental involvement in
their lives instead of the parents’ report on the level of involvement.
Nevertheless, the findings of the present study should also be considered in the light of
several limitations. Firstly, the sample in this study is not representative of the current
Malaysian population due to over-representation of Chinese respondents. Secondly, the use
of university samples raises generalisability issues and may have screened out young adults
from lower educational backgrounds or those with intellectual, social, or emotional
challenges. Thirdly, although the use of the retrospective report allows young adults to
reflect on their parental involvement from a more “mature” perspective, this method is also
vulnerable to recall biases (Ebner-Premier et al., 2006). Lastly, there may be a possibility
that the young adults’ reports of their parents’ past involvement are affected by their current
relationship with their parents. Therefore, these limitations should be kept in mind when
interpreting the results.
Accordingly, several suggestions for future research can be made. Firstly, an equal
sample size of races should be considered so that the results would be more representative of
the Malaysian population. Secondly, future research can also examine whether similar
findings would emerge in young adults from other backgrounds (i.e. a lower educational
background, social or emotional challenges, low socio-economic status, etc.). Thirdly, a
future study may also investigate the behaviour or specific types of activity that contribute
to each of the involvement domain. For instance, spiritual involvement may include talk
about the meaning of life, weekly religious meeting attendance, shared values and beliefs.
In addition, as this study has set a base level data on perceived parental involvement
based on young adults from intact families; it is recommended that future work examine
young adults from other family forms (i.e. dual career family, single parent family, and
divorced family). Indeed, Schwartz and Finley’s (2005) study found that the level of father
involvement not only varied by family forms (i.e. intact and divorced families) but is also
moderated by ethnicity. Therefore, future research may also consider replicating Schwartz
and Finley’s (2005) study in the local context given that Malaysia is a multi-racial country.
Lastly, examining young adults from divorced families could be an important focus, seeing
that the divorce rate in Malaysia is on the rise (Chan & Mohamed Sarif, 2008).
The present study has several important implications for parenting research and
programmes. First of all, the findings enhance the existing knowledge of young Malaysian
adults’ long-term perception of their parents’ involvement. Thus, future parenting
programmes or workshops can increase parents’ awareness of the importance of their
involvement in the area of expressive functions (for both parents) and mentoring or advising
(for fathers). This could help them to further improve their relationship with their children.
Besides, more informative workshops or talks on how to interact with their children in those
significant domains (e.g. companionship, emotional development, sharing activities etc.)
that predict better parent-child relationship could also be organised to further enhance the
involvement that parents have in their children’s development.
To conclude, this study summarises that young adults felt good about their relationships
with their parents when fathers were more involved in expressive and mentoring/advising
functions, and when mothers were more involved in expressive functions. In particular, the
level of parental companionship appears to be the key in predicting the satisfaction of a
parent-child relationship. Since the present study is one of the few studies that researched on
the different dimensions of parental involvement and the effects on satisfaction of a parent-
child relationship, more studies are warranted, especially in examining children from
different backgrounds.
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SECONDARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS, GENDER, AND

MUFY MATH PERFORMANCE: A SUNWAY CAMPUS CASE
STUDY
TANG ENG LOONG

Sunway University
46150, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: +60(3)7491 8622
Fax: +60(3)5635 8633
lawrencet@sunway.edu.my
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to examine the Malaysian students’ performance in Fundamental Mathematics A in
the Monash University Foundation Year (MUFY) programme. This study compared Malaysian students’
secondary school mathematics background and gender to their performance in the MUFY Fundamental
Mathematics A. The sample consisted of 125 Malaysian students who took the MUFY Fundamental
Mathematics A in January, March, July and August of 2009. The data revealed that the grades of Mathematics at
the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) or Malaysian Certificate of Education level were significantly related to the
grades of the MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A. Furthermore, students with SPM Additional Mathematics
performed better than their classmates who did not take the subject in the MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A.
Also, female students were found to perform better than their male counterparts in the MUFY Fundamental
Mathematics A.
Key words: secondary school Mathematics, post-secondary Mathematics, correlation, gender
INTRODUCTION
The admission requirements for the MUFY are a minimum of five credits in the SPM
examination including credits in English and Mathematics, and conditional offers are made
to students based on their forecast results. Generally, students who meet the minimum
requirements in SPM Mathematics are considered to be able to cope with the Math subjects
offered by MUFY. However, there are exceptions to the rule given that a few students who
obtained a credit in SPM Mathematics failed the MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A,
which is equivalent to the Australian Year 11 Mathematics, and which is perceived as the
more manageable Math offered by MUFY. Accordingly, this raised the question on whether
the minimum requirement in Mathematics set by MUFY is sufficient to determine the
students’ ability to cope with the Math offered by this pre-university programme.
In order to understand the problem further, the SPM Mathematics and Additional
Mathematics syllabi are compared with the syllabus of the MUFY Fundamental
Mathematics A (shown in Table 1).
64
Table 1. Syllabi of SPM Math and Additional Math and MUFY Fundamental
Mathematics A
SPM The syllabus has three main areas, namely:
Mathematics 1) Number – whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages,
negative numbers, multiples and factors, squares, square roots,
cubes and cube roots, standard forms, and number bases;
2) Shape and space – basic management, lines and angles,
polygons, perimeter and areas, geometrical construction, loci in
two dimensions, circles, geometric solids, Pythagoras’
Theorem, trigonometry, bearings, angle of elevation and angle
of depression, lines and planes in three dimensions, plan and
elevation, earth as a sphere, and transformation;
3) Relationship – indices, algebraic expressions, algebraic
formulae, linear equations, linear inequalities, quadratic
expressions and equations, coordinates, the straight line, graphs
of functions, gradient and the area under a graph, ratios and
proportions, variations, matrices, sets, mathematical reasoning,
statistics, and probability.
SPM Additional The syllabus has two learning packages: Core and Elective.
Mathematics The Core Package, which is compulsory for all students,
comprises five components, namely:
1) Geometry – coordinate geometry, and vectors;
2) Algebra – functions, quadratic equations, quadratic functions,
simultaneous equations, indices and logarithms, progressions
(arithmetic and geometric), and linear law;
3) Calculus – differentiation, and integration,
4) Trigonometry – circular measures, and trigonometric functions;
5) Statistics – measures of central tendency and dispersion,
permutations and combinations, and probability.
Students need to choose only one application package from the

Elective Package based on their inclination and field of interest:
1) Science and Technology Application Package – solutions of
triangles and motion along a straight line; or
2) Social Science Application Package – index number and linear
programming.
MUFY The syllabus has six topics, namely:

Fundamental 1) Number systems – natural numbers, integers, rational numbers,
Mathematics A irrational numbers, directed numbers, commutative law,
associative law, distributive law, order of operations, and
factors and multiples;
2) Fractions, decimals and percentage;
3) Algebra – linear equations, quadratic equations, indices, and

logarithms;
4) Ratio and proportion;
5) Sequence and series – arithmetic and geometric;
6) Business mathematics – simple interest, effective rate of
interest, compound interest, depreciation, and reducing balance
loans.
Adapted from the Ministry of Education (2004, 2006) and Monash College Pty Ltd (2008)
The syllabus of SPM Mathematics covers the first four topics of MUFY
Fundamental Mathematics A except the logarithms. On the other hand, the syllabus of SPM
Additional Mathematics has logarithms and sequence, and series, which are part of the
MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A syllabus. SPM Mathematics is a compulsory subject
taken by all secondary school students while SPM Additional Mathematics is an elective
subject (not taken by all students). The central question is : Can students with SPM
Additional Mathematics do better in the MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A than students
without SPM Additional Mathematics?
Apart from that, in Malaysia, at primary and secondary educational levels, female
students were better than male students in Mathematics (Zalizan, Saemah, Roselan & Jamil,
2005). Accordingly, the corresponding question is: Can this finding be extended to the pre-
university level in programmes such as the MUFY?
The objectives of the current study are:
1) To determine whether there is a correlation/a relationship between the grades of
SPM Mathematics and Fundamental Mathematics A in the MUFY programme.
2) To determine whether students with SPM Additional Mathematics do better in
MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A compared to those without SPM Additional
Mathematics.
3) To determine whether there is a correlation/relationship between the Malaysian
students’ performance in MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A and their gender.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Relationship between Mathematics Performances at Different Educational Levels
Many studies have indicated that students’ performance at one educational level is highly
related to the Mathematics taken at a lower educational level. Through extensive research,
Adelman (1999) found that students in the United States who had completed a class in high
school Mathematics above algebra II level were twice as likely to complete a bachelor’s
degree. Adelman (1999) also concluded that the number and intensity of mathematical
subjects completed in high school are excellent indicators of success in higher education.
This was also supported by Holton (1998). Furthermore, students’ exposure to challenging
mathematics enhances self-regulatory skills that benefit achievement in all subjects
attempted in post-secondary education (Matthews, 2000; Pugh & Lowther, 2004). A group
66
of researchers from Maryland Higher Education Commission (2009) revealed that the high
school GPA was the best predictor of college Math performance. A study conducted in the
University of Western Sydney (Rylands & Coad, 2009) concluded that the students’
secondary school mathematics background has a dramatic effect on the pass rates of four
different Mathematics and mathematically related subjects at university level.
James, Montelle, and Williams (2008) carried out a study at the University of
Canterbury in New Zealand to analyse the association between the final secondary school
qualifications in Mathematics with calculus of incoming students, and their results in the
first-year mathematics subjects at the university since 2005. They found that the
Mathematics results of the National Certificate for Educational Achievement (NCEA) taken
during the final secondary year were a strong indicator of success in tertiary Mathematics
study. Henning (2007) concluded that the educational path prior to entering college
determined the performance in college Mathematics. Students emerging from the new
curriculum Grade 12 Math for College and Apprenticeship (MAP4C) failed their first
semester Math at nearly three times the rate of all other course groupings combined. On the
other hand, students emerging from any of the university-stream high school Grade 12 Math
courses or the college-stream Maths for Technology (MCT4C) were best prepared for
college Math in Manufacturing Sciences Division post-secondary programmes.
Undergraduate and graduate students at Cameron University took the D’Amore Test of
Elementary Arithmetic. The test showed that students who had taken college Math courses
had significantly higher scores than those who had not taken them (Weinstein &
Laverghetta, 2009).
A study carried out by Noor Azina and Azmah Othman (2006) at University Malaya
found that Mathematics performance at the SPM level was one of the influential factors for
academic achievement at the Faculty of Business and Accountancy though this finding did
not apply to students studying at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, and the Faculty of
Economics and Administration.
Gender Difference on Mathematics Performance
There were mixed conclusions on gender difference on mathematics performance. Some

studies showed that there were no statistical significance between male and female students
in terms of mathematics performance, but some studies revealed otherwise.
In one recent study, researchers obtained useable data from 10 states in the United
States representing the testing of more than 7 million youth (Hyde, Lindberg, Linn, Ellis &
Williams, 2008). Averaged across these states, gender differences in Mathematics
performance were close to zero in all grades, including high school. A study in two
countries, Hong Kong and the United States, examined male and female students’
performances on mathematics in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
2003 (Liu & Wilson, 2009). PISA is an assessment that focuses on 15-year-olds’
capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy and science literacy. The study
revealed that the male students in both countries demonstrated superior performance,
particularly in complex multiple choice items while female students scored higher on
probability, algebra, and reproduction items.
There were also mixed results for a study done in the United States and China (Tsui,
2007). The mean Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)-Math score among US male high-school
seniors was consistently higher than the mean of their female counterparts while in China
there were no gender differences in the mean of college entrance examination Mathematics
scores among high-school seniors.
In Malaysia, the national examination results at all levels, namely Primary School
Evaluation Test (UPSR), Lower Secondary Assessment Test (PMR) and SPM, from 1996 to
2000 showed that female students performed better than male students across almost all
school subjects (Zalizan et al., 2005). In a case study on diploma students at a local public
university, the female students were found to perform better than male students in all the
four Mathematics subjects (Tang, Voon & Nor Hazizah, 2009).
METHODOLOGY
The data was obtained from MUFY student records database for 125 Malaysian students (59
females and 66 males) who took Fundamental Mathematics A in January, March, July and
August of 2009. Among these Malaysian students, 116 completed SPM, 5 completed the
General Certificate of Education (GCE) and 3 completed the International General
Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and only 1 completed the General Certificate
of Secondary Education (GCSE).
The grade system of the MUFY subjects is shown in Table 2. On the other hand, the
grade system of the SPM examination is assigned a letter and a point to each range (A1, A2,
B3, B4, C5, C6, D7, E8, F9), with A1 as the highest range and F9 as the lowest range.
Table 2: The Grade System of MUFY subjects

Grade Score
High Distinction 80% or above
Distinction 70% to 79%
Credit 60% to 69
Pass 50% to 59%
Fail 49% or below
Data from 116 Malaysian students who completed the SPM examination were used
to examine the first two objectives in this study. For the third objective, it was evaluated by
using data of all Malaysian students in this study. The SPSS software was used to analyse
the quantitative data and to assess the objectives of the study by using the Pearson’s chi-
square test and one way ANOVA.
68
RESULTS
Preliminary Analysis
The summarised data in Figure 1 shows that about 34% of Malaysian students obtained
High Distinction for the MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A and about 6% of this group
failed the subject.
Figure 2 shows that about 40% of the Malaysian students who completed SPM
scored A1 for SPM Mathematics, about 15% of them scored A2, about 5% of them with
grades of below C6 but no students failed this subject.
Figure 3 shows that about 76% of Malaysian students took SPM Additional
Mathematics. The grade distribution for students with SPM Additional Mathematics is
shown in Figure 4. The SPM Additional Mathematics grades are more uniformly distributed
than SPM Mathematics and MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A. It also discloses that
grades D7 and E8 of SPM Additional Mathematics have the highest percentage at about
19% each. About 3% of the students failed SPM Additional Mathematics.
Figure 1. The Grade Distribution of MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A

40
35
30
% Frequency
25
20
15
10
5
0
High Distinction Credit Pass Fail
Distinction
Figure 2. The Grade Distribution of SPM Mathematics

45
40
35
% Frequency
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
A1 A2 B3 B4 C5 C6 D7 E8
Figure 3. Students with and without SPM Additional Mathematics

80.0
70.0
60.0
% Frequency
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
with SPM Additional Maths without SPM Additional Maths
Figure 4. The Grade Distribution of SPM Additional Mathematics

25
20
% Frequency
15
10
0
A1 A2 B3 B4 C5 C6 D7 E8 F9
The Relationship between SPM Mathematics and MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A
Cross tabulation between SPM Mathematics and MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A is

shown in Table 3. It reveals that students with better grades in SPM Mathematics achieved
better grades in the MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A. The relationship between poor
SPM Mathematics grade and poor performance in MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A is
not clear.
Some cells are with zero count in Table 3 especially at the last row and the last few
columns. From the statistical point of view, these zero counts indicate that the test does not
meet one of the assumptions of Pearson’s chi-square (Lieberman, 1971). In order to reduce
the number of zero counts, the SPM grades are merged as follows: A1 and A2 are combined
as A, B3 and B4 as B, C5 and C6 as C, D7 and E8 as D and F9 as F. A new cross tabulation
is generated as shown in Table 4, and it also provides a summary of the Chi-square test on
the merged data. After the grades are merged, the pattern of the relationship between these
mathematics subjects at two different educational levels is clear. The Chi-square test
suggests that there is a significant relationship between SPM Mathematics and MUFY
Fundamental Mathematics A as the p-value is less than 0.01, where the significance level is
set at 0.01.
70
Table 3. Two-way Tabulation between SPM Mathematics and MUFY Fundamental

Mathematics A
MUFY SPM Mathematics
Fundamental
Mathematics A A1 A2 B3 B4 C5 C6 D7 E8 Total
High
28 5 4 3 1 0 0 0 41
Distinction
Distinction 12 5 1 1 3 1 1 0 24
Credit 5 6 7 3 1 0 2 0 24
Pass 1 1 3 7 2 4 2 0 20
Fail 0 0 0 2 1 3 0 1 7
Total 46 17 15 16 8 8 5 1 116
Table 4 A Summary of Chi-square Test for the Relationship between SPM

Mathematics and MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A for Merged Grades
MUFY SPM Mathematics (with Merged Grades)
Fundamental
Mathematics A A B C D Total
High Distinction 33 7 1 0 41
Distinction 17 2 4 1 24
Credit 11 10 1 2 24
Pass 2 10 6 2 20
Fail 0 2 4 1 7
Total 63 31 16 6 116
Chi-Square Tests
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 51.854 12 .000
Likelihood Ratio 57.732 12 .000
Linear-by-Linear
34.916 1 .000
Association
N of Valid Cases 116
The Effects of SPM Additional Mathematics on MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A
Students with SPM Additional Mathematics have an average score of 73.66 and a standard
deviation of 14.284. Students without SPM Additional Mathematics have an average score
of 60.68 and a standard deviation of 16.148. The average and standard deviation for students
with SPM Additional Mathematics are higher than that of students without SPM Additional
Mathematics.
The SPSS output of the t-test in Table 5 indicates that there is no significant
difference between the variances of the two groups on the scores of MUFY Fundamental
Mathematics A as the p-value is equal to 0.439, where the significance level is set at 0.01.
The difference between the average score for students with SPM Additional Mathematics
and the average score for students without SPM Additional Mathematics is -12.981, which
is not close to zero. The standard deviation of mean difference between these two groups is
3.200.
The t-test suggests that the average score for students with SPM Additional
Mathematics is significantly higher than the average score for students without SPM
Additional Mathematics as the p-value is less than 0.01, where the significance level is set at
0.01.
Table 5: A Comparison between Students with and without SPM Additional

Mathematics
Group Statistics
SPM Additional Mathematics N Mean Std. Deviation
MUFY Didn't take the subject 28 60.68 16.148
Fundamental Took the subject
Mathematics A 88 73.66 14.284
Independent Samples Test

Levene's
Test for
Equality of
Variances t-test for Equality of Means
Sig. (2- Mean Std. Error
F Sig. t df tailed) Difference Difference
MUFY Equal
Fundamental variances .602 .439 -4.057 114 .000 -12.981 3.200
Mathematics assumed
A Equal
variances
-3.806 41.323 .000 -12.981 3.410
not
assumed
72
Gender Difference on MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A
Female students have an average score of 74.08 and a standard deviation of 15.405. Male
students have an average score of 66.38 and a standard deviation of 15.972. The average
score for female students is higher than that of male students, and the standard deviation for
male students is slightly higher than that of female students.
The SPSS output of the t-test in Table 6 indicates that there is no significant
difference between the variances of female and male students on the scores of MUFY
Fundamental Mathematics A as the p-value is equal to 0.714, where the significance level is
set at 0.01. The difference between the average score for female students and the average
score for male students is 7.706, which is not close to zero. The standard deviation of mean
difference between female and male students is 2.814.
The t-test suggests that the average score for female students is significantly higher
than the average score for male students as the p-value is less than 0.01, where the
significance level is set at 0.01.
Table 6. A Comparison between Male and Female Students in MUFY Fundamental

Mathematics A
Group Statistics
Gender N Mean Std. Deviation
MUFY Fundamental Female 59 74.08 15.405
Mathematics A Male 66 66.38 15.972
Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test
for Equality of
Variances t-test for Equality of Means
Sig. (2- Mean Std. Error
F Sig. t df tailed) Difference Difference
MUFY Equal
Fundamental variances .135 .714 2.738 123 .007 7.706 2.814
Mathematics assumed
A Equal
variances
2.744 122.276 .007 7.706 2.808
not
assumed
DISCUSSIONS
The Effects of SPM Mathematics and Additional Mathematics on MUFY Fundamental

Mathematics A
The Chi-square test suggests that there is a significant effect of taking a Math subject at
Malaysian secondary school on the students’ performance in the MUFY Fundamental
Mathematics A subject. The conclusion of this study is consistent with the study by Rylands
and Coad (2009) who found that secondary school Mathematics background had a huge
impact on the pass rates of four different Mathematics and mathematically related subjects
at university level. In their study, they focused on the relationship between secondary school
Mathematics and university Mathematics whereas this study focuses on the effect of
secondary school Mathematics results on the results of a Mathematics subject at the pre-
university level.
The Chi-square result for the relationship between SPM Mathematics and MUFY
Fundamental Mathematics A is also consistent with the study by James, Montelle, and
Williams (2008) who analysed the association between the final secondary school
qualifications in Mathematics with calculus of incoming students and their results in the
first-year university mathematics. The difference between James et al’s study in 2008 and
this study is the content of Mathematics at secondary school and the level of education
where the studies are done.
Students who did SPM Additional Mathematics at secondary school learned five of
the six topics of MUFY Fundamental Mathematics A before they joined the pre-university
programme. Students with SPM Additional Mathematics background have an advantage
over their classmates who do not have this secondary school background and they are
expected to perform better. The data revealed that students who took SPM Additional
Mathematics scored higher points in Mathematics at the MUFY programme compared to
students who did not take the SPM Additional Mathematics. The SPM Additional
Mathematics is considered a challenging subject and is usually taken by students in the
Science stream. This finding is consistent with the studies by Matthews (2000) and Pugh
and Lowther (2004) who concluded that students’ exposure to challenging Mathematics
benefits achievement in all subjects attempted in post-secondary education.
Gender Difference
In the literature review, studies at different educational levels in different countries had a
wide range of conclusions.
The finding of the study on gender difference in mathematics performance in the
MUFY program is not consistent with the study by Hyde et al. (2008) which revealed that
gender difference does not affect Mathematics performance for the high school students in
the United States. The conclusion of this study is also not consistent with the one carried out
by Tsui (2007) which indicates that male students’ scores are higher than females’ score in
the United States’ SAT-Math test, and that in China, there is no gender difference in college
entrance examination Mathematics scores.
74
Furthermore, the result of this study is not consistent with the study by Liu and
Wilson (2009) that was conducted on PISA’s students. Male PISA’s students performed
better than female students in multiple choice items. However, MUFY’s Mathematics
Fundamental A does not include multiple choice items and comprises only subjective
questions. Liu and Wilson (2009) also examined female students’ performance in different
areas including algebra and showed that female PISA’s students outperformed their male
counterparts. Their finding is consistent with this study, where algebra is the basic
knowledge in sequence and series, and financial Mathematics in MUFY Fundamental
Mathematics A.
In the Malaysian context, this finding is consistent with the results of the study
conducted by Zalizan et al. (2005) which indicated that female students perform better than
male students in all subjects including Mathematics and Additional Mathematics in the SPM
examination. This finding is consistent with the results of the study conducted by Tang et al.
(2009) on diploma students at a local public university.
CONCLUSION
The case of a few students with a credit in SPM Mathematics who failed in the MUFY
Fundamental Mathematics A cannot be used to generalise the problem. In conclusion, the
minimum requirement in Mathematics set by MUFY is sufficient to determine the students’
ability to cope with Fundamental Mathematics A at this pre-university level.
Students without SPM Additional Mathematics are at a disadvantage as they did not
learn logarithms and sequence, and series at secondary school compared to students with
SPM Additional Mathematics, and the finding of this study supports this. Because of this
disadvantage, lecturers should pay more attention to students without SPM Additional
Mathematics.
The finding by Zalizan et al. (2005) can be extended to the MUFY programme as
female students perform better than male students in Mathematics.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Mathematics and Additional Mathematics at secondary school level can be used as an

indicator to gauge students’ ability to cope with all mathematical subjects in the MUFY
programme. Subsequently, a series of measures are needed, which include remedial classes
to help students with poor Mathematics background.
The study provides a framework to investigate the performance of students in other
mathematics units (Fundamental Mathematics B, Mathematics A and B, Advanced
Mathematics A and B) offered by the pre-university program. The findings of this study are
only applicable to Malaysian students taking the MUFY Mathematics Fundamental A
subject. Future research on the Mathematics performance in the MUFY programme should
include international students.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to thank Puan Adawiah Norli Yusuf (the Director of MUFY Programme Sunway
College), Ms. Ng Wee Koon, Mr. Nazarol Hakim Bin Zakariya and Ms. Lim Xinying for
their help in providing the students’ records.
REFERENCES
Adelman, C. (1999). Answers in the total box: Academic intensity, attendance patterns, and
bachelor’s degree attainment. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of
Educational Research and Improvement.
Pugh, C. M., & Lowther, S. (2004). College math performance and last high school math course.
Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Southern Association for Institutional
Research, October 16-19, 2004 in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Henning, M. C. (2007). A study of the level of math preparedness of manufacturing sciences students
in the fall semester of 2005. College Quarterly, 10(1), 1 – 14.
Holton, J. M. (1998). High school choice, performance and readiness for college, Frederick County
Public High School graduates enrolling at Frederick Community College. (ERIC Document;
ED419569). N.p.: Planning, Research & Evaluation.
Hyde, J. S., Lindberg S. M., Linn M. C., Ellis A.B., & Williams C. C. (2008). Gender similarities
characterize math performance. Science, 321(5888), 494 – 495.
Noor Azina Ismail & Azmah Othman. (2006). Comparing university academic performances of HSC
students at the three art-based faculties. International Education Journal, 7(5), 668-675.
James, A., Montelle, C., & Williams, P. (2008). From lessons to lectures: NCEA mathematics results
and first-year mathematics performance. International Journal of Mathematical Education in
Science and Technology, 39(8), 1037 – 1050.
Lieberman, B. (Ed.). (1971). Contemporary problems in statistics. NY: Oxford. Section 5 deals with
assumptions of chi-square procedures.
Liu, O. L., & Wilson, M. (2009). Gender differences and similarities in PISA 2003 Mathematics: A
comparison between the United States and Hong Kong. International Journal of Testing, 9(1),
20 – 40.
Malaysia. Ministry of Education, Curriculum Development Centre. (2004). Mathematics syllabus:

Integrated Curriculum for Secondary Schools. Kuala Lumpur: Author. Retrieved from
http://www.moe.gov.my/bpk/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=170&Itemi
d=71, on 19 May 2010.
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Malaysia. Ministry of Education, Curriculum Development Centre. (2006). Additional mathematics

syllabus: Integrated Curriculum for Secondary Schools. Kuala Lumpur: Author. Retrieved from
http://www.moe.gov.my/bpk/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=172&Itemi
d=71 on 19 May 2010.
Maryland Higher Education Commission. (2009). College performance of new Maryland high school
graduates: Student outcome and achievement report (SOAR). (ERIC Document; ED505904).
Annapolis, MD: Author.
Matthews, J. (2000, March 13). The 100 best high schools: Challenging kids by encouraging them to
take tough high school courses produces students who can exceed later in college. Newsweek.
Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/site/newsweek/
Monash College Pty Ltd. (2008). Monash University Foundation Year: Fundamental mathematics:
Part A.
Rylands L. J., & Coady C. (2009). Performance of students with weak mathematics in first-year
mathematics and science. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and
Technology, 40(6), 741 – 753.
Tang H. E., Voon L. L., & Nor Hazizah Julaihi. (2009, March). A case study of ‘high-failure rate’
mathematics courses and its’ contributing factor on UiTM Sarawak diploma students. Paper
presented at Conference on Scientific & Social Research, 14-15 March 2009.
Tsui, M. (2007). Gender and mathematics: Achievement in China and the United States. Gender
Issues, 24(3), 1 – 11.
Weinstein, L., & Laverghetta, A. (2009). Does experience in college mathematics courses affect
elementary arithmetic performance in college students? College Student Journal, 43(3), 784 –
786.
Zalizan Mohd Jelas, Saemah Rahman, Roselan Baki, & Jamil Ahmad. (2005). Prestasi akademik
mengikut gender. [Academic performance according to gender]. Jurnal Pendidikan (UKM), 30,
93 – 111.
THE IMPACT OF NEIGHBORHOOD TYPES ON THE PRICES

OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES
TAN TECK-HONG
Sunway University
Tel: +60(3)74918622
Fax: +60(3)56358633
ABSTRACT
This paper attempts to examine the impact of neighborhood types on residential property prices in the Klang
Valley, Malaysia. Results show that the gated-guarded landscape compound neighborhood could attract higher
market prices by 14.26%, and the freehold neighborhood could fetch a 20.68% higher price than the leasehold
neighborhood. It is interesting to note that house buyers are willing to pay 23.52% to live in the gated-guarded
and freehold neighborhoods. In order to meet the increasingly demanding house buyers, instead of just offering
dram houses in prime locations, housing developers should provide intangible benefits in the neighborhood that
are just as sought after by today’s house buyers, such as a sense of security, a feeling of harmony with one’s
surroundings, and an infrastructure which supports a eco-friendly lifestyle.
Keywords: gated-guarded neighborhood, freehold neighborhood, property prices, Klang Valley, Malaysia
INTRODUCTION
The housing industry in Malaysia encountered an oversupply problem recently. A massive

over construction of houses by public and private housing developers has contributed to the
problem of property overhang. The term property overhang means residential units that
have been issued with certificates of fitness for occupation (CF) and have remained unsold
for more than 9 months (Ministry of Finance’s Valuation and Property Service Department
2006). As reported in the Property Market Status Report (2009), the overhang units
increased from 23, 866 units worth RM (Malaysian Ringgit) 3.82 billion in 2007 to 26, 029
units worth RM 4.476 billion in 2008. Most of the overhang units had been in the market for
more than 24 months. The majority of these units remain unsold for reasons beyond the
price factor, ranging from poor location to unattractive neighborhoods. These unsold houses
do not attract the target market nor cater to the housing needs of the target group. It is
important for housing developers to know what the market really wants as house buyers are
becoming more cautious before choosing the right house to live in.
One way for housing developers to ride out the challenges of the industry is to
determine the responsiveness of those willing to pay for changes in housing attributes. As
such, a model representing house price determination in Malaysia, particularly within Klang
Valley, is developed. The determination of house prices can be carried out by the using the
hedonic price model (Rosen 1974). Many researchers have used the hedonic price model to
examine the relationship between attribute preferences and house prices. The house prices in
78
this study are assumed to be affected by neighborhood, structural, and locational attributes
of dwellings.
There are many neighborhood, structural, and locational attributes of dwellings that
can affect house prices. The main emphasis of this paper is to determine the responsiveness
of the willingness to pay for changes in neighborhood types. In this study, two
neighborhood types are assessed and examined, namely a gated-guarded landscaped
compound neighborhood and a freehold neighborhood.
Klang Valley, also known as the Kuala Lumpur conurbation, is the country’s fastest
growth region. The valley is ideally suited for the purpose of this research because it is a
large residential area with a large number of residential transactions. As reported by the
Ministry of Finance’s Valuation and Property Service Department (2007), the valley
contributed more than 45% of the total amount of constructed houses in the country.
Additionally, households from the Klang Valley have similar demographic characteristics,
and variations in their housing qualities are small. Figure 1 is a map of Klang Valley,
Malaysia.
Figure 1: Map of Klang Valley, Malaysia
Source: http://www.fastlane2u.com/images/klangvalley_map.jpg
LITERATURE REVIEW
There are many structural, neighborhood and locational attributes that could have brought
about impacts on house prices (Chin, Chau & Ng, 2004). The most common structural
attributes that are included in measuring property prices are the built-up area, the size of the
living area or the dining area, number of bedrooms or bathrooms in a house, the car porch
and the internal or external structure of a house (Arimah, 1992; Laakso & Loikkanen, 1995;
Tiwari & Parikh, 1998; Wilhelmsson, 2000; Tse & Love, 2000). Empirical work generally
found that quality structural attributes have a positive impact on housing price.
With respect to the locational attributes of housing, distance to the workplace,
schools, retailing outlets and public transportation stations have been found to significantly
affect house prices (Chin et al, 2004; Hui, Chau, Pun & Law, 2007; Jim & Chen, 2006,
2007, 2009; Redfearn, 2009; Poudyal, Hodges & Merrett, 2009). This indicates that house
price is determined not only by accessibility, but also savings in transportation costs
There are many types of neighborhood attributes that house buyers can choose
from. One way to classify neighborhood types is by looking at the environmental qualities
within and around the neighborhood. Many studies conducted in Europe, Asia and the US
evaluate the impact of environmental qualities, such as green space provision (Tyrvainen,
1997; Tyrvainen & Miettinen, 2000; Tajima, 2003; Jim & Chen, 2006), proximity to parks
(Bolitzer & Netusil, 2000; Paudyal et al, 2009), and views of green space and water (Luttik,
2000; Jim & Chen, 2006) on house prices. The conclusion is that a property that is located
in a good neighborhood is preferred as house buyers are willing to pay extra for a house
with good environmental qualities. For example, a view of green space and proximity to
water bodies raise prices by 7.1% and 13.2% respectively (Jim & Chen, 2006), and
accessible green spaces near homes could raise house prices by 5 – 6% (Tyrvainen &
Miettinen, 2000; Tajima, 2003). Besides, a garden bordering on water could attract a
premium of 28% higher than one without this attraction (Luttik, 2000).
The main emphasis of this paper is to examine the impact of environmental qualities
within the neighborhood on residential property prices. The study of the impact of
environmental qualities has been conducted in developed countries. There is little or no
empirical evidence to examine the impact of environmental qualities in Malaysia. In this
study, two environmental qualities are assessed and examined, namely a gated-guarded
landscaped compound neighborhood and a freehold neighborhood. Living in the gated-
guarded landscaped and freehold neighborhood has become more and more popular. One of
the popular examples is Desa Park City in Kepong, which is located in the northwestern
district of Kuala Lumpur. It is a safe and vibrant community, and each neighborhood is
gated-guarded and fully landscaped.
In the gated-guarded landscaped compound neighborhood, native tree species are
planted within buffer zones, green reserves and pocket green spaces. Additionally, all
utilities are built underground so that the natural landscape is protected and the views are
not blocked. Additionally, these neighborhoods have sufficient recreation facilities, such as
swimming/ wading pools with Jacuzzi, squash court, gym and sauna, BBQ corner, cafeteria
and convenience store. Tan (2010) argues that home owners from the gated and guarded
neighborhood socialize more with their neighbors. It is reasonable to believe that the
enclosed common areas and amenities provide residents with day-to-day social activity
requirements. The availability of these facilities brings some positive effects on property
80
prices. It is documented that the price of large housing estates, in which facilities such as a
private clubhouse and swimming pool are provided, tend to be higher (Mok, Chan & Cho,
1995; Tse & Love, 2000; Hui et al., 2006). One of the main characteristics of the gated-
guarded landscape compound neighborhood is the added security features. The commonly
installed security features include perimeter walls and fences, security personnel and
professional property management. There are CCTVs installed along the perimeter fencing,
which help the security personnel to monitor visitors and outsiders.
House buyers nowadays generally want to live in the neighborhood with a freehold
tenure besides the secured and exclusive gated-guarded landscape compound neighborhood.
The land tenure of the freehold property is for life. The owners of the land own the land, the
building and all that is on the land. There is no time limit for the owner and the freehold
land lies with the title holder until the land owner transfers it to someone else. The
difference between leasehold and freehold neighborhoods is that for leasehold, the land is to
be returned after the expiry of the period. This type of land also belongs to the government
and the lease is usually for 99 years. When the lease expires, the government can retrieve
the land or lease it further. The shorter the remaining lease, the less valuable the land
becomes. It is a widely known fact that freehold properties, as compared to leasehold
properties, tend to perform better in terms of long-term capital appreciation. Also, home
owners who own freehold properties stay in their present dwellings longer as they own
everything that is on the land.
METHODOLOGY
A self-administered survey was conducted to collect the required data directly from home
owners in the Klang Valley. This survey gleans information about the dwellings of the
respondents, including internal characteristics, location, outdoor environment and
neighborhood attributes. The sample of home owners is randomly selected in a series of
steps. First, the area sample, the most popular type of cluster sample, is used to sample
economically while retaining the characteristics of a probability sample. Next, districts
within the Klang Valley are chosen to ensure that different areas are represented in the
sample. According to the Population and Housing Census of Malaysia (2000), there are 8
districts in Klang Valley, namely Gombak, Klang, Petaling, Hulu Langat, Kepong, Cheras,
Wangsa Maju, and Kuala Lumpur city. In this survey, 100 households within each district
were chosen. In total, 800 copies of questionnaires were distributed in identified residential
areas near major hypermarkets in each district. Out of the 800 copies of questionnaire forms,
400 forms were returned to the researcher. However, only 299 were used in the analysis due
to incomplete information in some survey forms, and outlier removal.
The hedonic price model is used to determine the responsiveness of the willingness
to pay for changes in housing attributes. Rosen (1974) established the price of a
heterogeneous good in terms of its attributes, assuming a perfect competitive model in
which the price of an indivisible and differentiated product is determined by the joint
iteration of the supply and demand of the product’s attributes.
The fundamental assumption is that in purchasing a house, the house buyer is
paying not only for the dwelling unit, but also for its surrounding environmental qualities in
the neighborhood. The house prices in this study are assumed to be affected by
neighborhood, structural, and locational attributes of dwellings. There are many

neighborhood, structural, and locational attributes of dwellings that could affect the house
prices. A functional relationship between them can be developed. It can be represented by:
Pi j = β 0 + β s S i j + β l L i j + β n N i j + ε i j
where β s is the coefficient vector for the structural attributes (S) which measure the
structural effect on the housing price (P), while β l and β n are locational (L), and
neighborhood (N) coefficient vectors respectively, reflecting the locational, and
neighborhood effects on the housing price. ε is the stochastic disturbance vector.
There are many forms that can be used to describe the relationships between price
and housing attributes. Commonly adopted forms are linear, quadratic, semi-log, log-log
and Box-Cox form, etc. In this study, a semi-logarithmic form is used. As pointed by
Bolitzer and Netusil (2000), Geoghegan (2002), Jim and Chen (2007), this form is
considered to be the best without too many complicated computations. The estimated
equation in a semi-logarithmic form is expressed as:
ln P = β 0 + β 1 ln Age i j + β 2 ln Built-up i j + β 3 Flcer i j + β 4 Fltim i j + β 5 Wlkit

i j + β 6 Wlbat i j + β 7 Housetype i j + β 8 Worktime i j + β 9 Retailtime i j + β
10 Hospitime i j + β11 Sportime i j + β 12 Transtime i j + β 13 Gated i j + β 14
Freehold i j + β 15 Gated*Freehold i j + € i j
The definition of the dependent variable (P) and explanatory variables included in this study
are given in Table 1.
The house price, built-up area and age of the dwellings are continuous variables
while the other explanatory variables are dummy variables. The house price refers to either
the current or resale price of the dwellings. The resale prices were used instead of the
original sale prices as stipulated in the original Sales and Purchase Agreement. This is
because the transaction price in the resale market is closer to the true market price.
Households in the survey know the resale prices of their dwellings if they want to dispose
their properties as they are aware of the recent transacted price of houses in their
neighborhoods. The size of the dwellings refers to the actual built-up area in square feet, and
the number of rooms was not included in the model as the number of room is highly
correlated with the built-up area (Chin et al 2004). The age of the housing unit was
measured in number of years.
Seven variables related to structural characteristics of dwellings are considered in
this study: the age of the building (Age); the built-up area in square feet (Built-up); living
room ceramic-tiles flooring (Flcer), and bedroom laminated timber flooring (Fltim); and
ceiling-height kitchen wall tiles (Walkit) and ceiling-height bathroom wall tiles (Wlbat).
Floor and wall finishes of the house are measured in dichotomous codes. Housing structure
dummies, namely detached, terrace, apartment, and others, are also included in the model as
prices would be different between house types. The common types of houses that are
available to Malaysian house buyers are detached, terrace houses, and high rise apartment.
Terrace houses are the most popular at 45% share of the transaction volume while
apartments made up 23% of the total transactions in 2009 (Property Market Status Report
2009).
82
Table 1: Definition and A Summary of Variables in the Hedonic Pricing Model

Variables Definition
House Price (P) Market Price (RM 000)
Age Age of the housing (years)
Built-up Built- up area (square feet)
Floor ceramic (Flcer) 1 if living room ceramic tiles flooring, 0 otherwise
Floor timber (Fltim) 1 if bedroom laminated timber flooring, 0 otherwise
Wall kitchen (Wlkit) 1 if ceiling-height kitchen ceramic wall tiles, 0 otherwise
Wall bathroom (Wlbat) 1 if ceiling-height bathroom wall tiles, 0 otherwise
House Type: Apartment 1 if the house type is apartment, 0 otherwise
House Type: Terrace 1 if the house is terrace, 0 otherwise
House Type: Detached 1 if the house is detached, 0 otherwise
Workplace (Worktime) 1 if the traveling time to the workplace is less than 20
minutes, 0 otherwise
Retail (Retailtime) 1 if the traveling time to retailing outlets is less than 20
Hospital (Hosptime) 1 if the traveling time to the hospital is less than 20
Sport center (Sportime) 1 if the traveling time to sport and recreation centers is less
than 20 minutes
Transport (transtime) 1 if the traveling time to public transport stations is less
than 20 minutes
Gated-Guarded (Gated) 1 if the property is located in the gated-guarded landscape
neighborhood, 0 otherwise
Freehold tenure (Freehold) 1 if the property is located in the freehold neighborhood, 0
otherwise
Gated*Freehold 1 if the property is located in the gated-guarded landscape
and freehold neighborhood, 0 otherwise
Locational variables (dichotomous codes) are included in this survey to capture the
proximity of the house to several amenities in the neighborhood. These variables include the
distance to the workplace (Worktime), to retailing outlets (Retailtime), to the hospital
(Hosptime), to sport and recreation centers (Sportime), and to the public transport stations
(Transtime).
Two categorical variables that measure the neighborhood characteristics of the
housing, which are the focus variables in the study, are the gated-guarded neighborhood
with the landscape compound and the freehold neighborhood. A dichotomous coding
denoted whether the house is located in the gated-guarded neighborhood with the landscape
compound, and whether it is in the freehold tenure neighborhood. Positive and significant
effects of the good environmental qualities are expected.
RESULTS
The data used in the estimation were derived from the sample households. A descriptive
statistics with the mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum for the housing
variables was summarized in Table 2.
The average price of a dwelling unit in the survey was RM 327, 386. Households,
on average, own their present dwellings for more than 9 years. In this survey, the average
built-up area of their dwellings was 1, 884 square feet. The majority of households own
better home quality that are located conveniently near places of employment, amenities,
medical, and transportation centers.
Table 2: A Summary of Variables in the Hedonic Pricing Model

Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Market Price (000) 70.00 1500.00 327.3860 217.88149
Age (years) 1.00 31.00 9.3545 7.61146
Build up (square feet) 500.00 5000.00 1883.6722 768.79098
Flcerm .00 1.00 .9030 .29644
Fltimber .00 1.00 .6789 .46767
Wlkit .00 1.00 .8060 .39608
Wlbath .00 1.00 .8528 .35486
Gated .00 1.00 .2943 .45650
Freehold .00 1.00 .5853 .49350
Gated*freehold .00 1.00 .1906 .39346
Worktime .00 1.00 .1773 .38253
Retailtime .00 1.00 .9799 .14046
Hospitime .00 1.00 .9465 .22543
Sportime .00 1.00 .9699 .17115
In order to assess whether the equation suffers from the problem of

multicollinearity, VIF is computed. Table 3 shows that most of VIF values are less than 5,
indicating there is no major multicollinearity problem in the model.
The results of the estimation of the semi-log model (OLS with white
heteroskedasticity-consistent standard error and covariance) are presented in Table 3. This
model explains about 88.4% of variations in the house prices determination. 14 coefficients
out of 17 in OLS are statistically significantly at the 5% level, and the signs of the effects of
these variables are consistent with previous studies. Following Jim and Chen (2009), the
impacts were calculated based on a double increase (2coefficient -1) for continuous variables,
and the impacts were calculated based on (e coefficient -1) for dummy variables.
The results in Table 3 reveal that all other things being equal, the gated-guarded
landscape compound neighborhood is significantly related to the house prices. The gated-
guarded neighborhood with the landscape compound attracts higher market prices. In this
survey, house buyers are willing to pay 14.26% more to live in the gated-guarded
neighborhood with the landscaped compound. The variable associated with the
84
neighborhood with a freehold tenure, which also is the focus of the study, is a key factor in
the house price determination model. There is a significant difference between freehold
properties and leasehold properties in terms of property prices. This study reveals that house
buyers are willing to pay 20.68% higher to live in the freehold neighborhood, ceteris
paribus. It is interesting to note that house buyers are willing to pay 23.52% to live in the
gated-guarded and freehold neighborhood.
As far as structural attributes of dwellings are concerned, there are significant
relationships in the property prices on living room flooring, bedroom flooring, kitchen wall
finishes, and bathroom wall finishes, assuming all other things being equal. As shown in
Table 3, the prices of houses with laminated timber flooring bedrooms are 5.46% higher
than the house without. Additionally, households in the survey are willing to pay 19.64%
more to own houses with ceiling-height bathroom wall tiles. Not surprisingly, home buyers
are willing to pay for a premium for quality house finishes. However, the results show that
living room ceramic tiles flooring is negatively and significantly related to house prices,
indicating that respondents prefer better flooring for the living room such as porcelain tiles
and marble than ceramic tiles. Again, house buyers prefer better kitchen wall tiles because
kitchen ceramic wall tiles are statistically and negatively related to the property price. As far
as house types are concerned, house buyers are willing to pay 46% more to own detached
houses, 27% more for terrace houses, and only 6% more for apartments, everything else
being equal.
Location and accessibility also play a role in the determination of house prices.
There are significant relationships between property prices and four locational attributes,
namely the distance to the workplace, to retailing outlets, to the hospital, and to public
transport stations. As indicated in Table 3, a house that is situated within a 20-minute
traveling time from the work place could fetch a 14.68% higher property price. This is quite
consistent with the economic theory because a long distance to the work place means
incurring more traveling time and cost and that would dampen house prices. According to
this survey, it is interesting to note that the houses located near retailing outlets are 25.65%
cheaper. Similar to the findings of Tse and Love (2000), proximity to retailing outlets does
not seem to have any positive impact on the house price. This response might be partially
due to the fact that the quality of living would be affected if a house is located near retailing
outlets. As shown in Table 3, a higher house price (19% more) is reported if the house is
located less than 20 minutes away from the hospital. The accessibility to convenient public
transport is also an important factor in the determination of house prices assuming all other
variables remain constant. A 25.64% higher sale price is observed for the houses that are
less than 20 minutes away from public transport facilities. However, the results show that
the distance to sport and recreation centers is statistically insignificant to the house price.
The results in this survey are comparable to findings obtained in other studies as far as
locational attributes are concerned.
Among the continuous variables, only the build-up area is statistically significant in
relation to the house price. The estimation results also show that, holding all other factors
constant, house age contributes a positive relationship to house prices, but the relationship is
not statistically significant. This finding is not in line with the works of Hui et al (2006), Tse
and Love (2000), Jim and Chen (2009), and Poudyal et al (2009) all of whom report
negative and significant relationships between house prices and the age of the properties.
Generally, older properties are inferior in quality and thus would fetch a lower price than a
new one.
Table 3. Housing Characteristics and Residential Property Values (OLS White

heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors & covariance)
Std. Impact
B Error VIF (%)
(Constant) -7.257** .645
Structural Attributes
Age .015 .007 1.354 0.0105
Built-up .168** .068 5.024 0.1237
Flcerm -.113** .039 1.469 -0.1072
Fltimber .053* .026 1.179 0.0546
Wlkit -.111** .042 2.795 -0.1055
Wlbath .179** .047 2.818 0.1964
Detached .376** .089 9.885 0.4562
Apartment .061 .057 4.411 0.0627
Terrace .243** .068 1.480 0.2744
Neighborhood Attributes
Gated .133** .041 3.525 0.1426
Freehold .188** .033 1.640 0.2068
Gated*freehold .211* .051 3.434 0.2352
Locational Attributes
Worktime .137** .032 1.215 0.1468
Retailtime -.296** .075 1.672 -0.2565
Hosptime .174** .052 1.406 0.1900
Sportime .013 .048 1.623 0.0133
Transptime .228** .083 1.378 0.2564
R square .884
Adjusted R square .877
Std Error of the Estimate .203
F 125.920
Sig .000
** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05
86
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study is relevant to housing developers as they have to be cautious before undertaking
any new housing projects since property overhang is the central concern in the Malaysian
housing industry. The house price determination analysis in Klang Valley indicates that
having laminated timber flooring and ceiling-height bathroom wall tiles are a few of the
main variables in house price determination, which is similar to empirical findings in other
countries. Other statistically significant variables include the distance traveled to the
hospital, public transportation facilities, and the workplace. All these indicate households
want their homes located conveniently in relation to the place of employment, medical
facilities and transportation. Another implication of this study is that housing developers
should bring new living concepts such as landscape compound living in a well-planned
gated-guarded neighborhood. House buyers are willing to pay more to live in a gated-
guarded neighborhood because of the security provided by security guards. Better security
measures could instill a sense of trust and peace of mind amongst the residents. In addition
to the provision of security guards, common facilities within the gated-guarded
neighborhood such as a private club house and a swimming pool could increase the value of
the property. As reported in the study of Hui et al (2006), the availability of a private
clubhouse facility within a housing estate could increase the sale value of the house by
about 3.5%. Additionally, home owners prefer freehold properties because they are directly
connected with the land they own, and they may obtain higher margins of financing
Today, housing is a lifestyle issue. A house is no longer just a dwelling. It is now
described as a lifestyle or space to reflect the owner’s personality, self-image and character.
Based on the findings of this study, it is highly recommended that housing developers build
freehold gated-guarded properties rather than just attractive properties in their housing
development plans. Social and recreation facilities within neighborhoods allow free
interaction among residents of the local neighborhood. Rohe and Steward (1996) argue that
these social interactions is the first step towards participation in local neighborhood
organizations. Residents are able to solve mutual problems through face-to-face discussions,
negotiation and co-operation.
It is reasonable to believe that neighborhood characteristics play a role in
determining the residential values of a property. In order to meet the demands and needs of
the increasingly affluent and discerning house buyers, instead of just offering dream homes
in prime locations, housing developers should provide intangible benefits in the
neighborhood that are just as sought after by today’s house buyers such as a sense of
security, a feeling of harmony with one’s surroundings, and an infrastructure which supports
an eco-friendly lifestyle.
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED PARENTING

STYLES AND STRESS LEVELS AMONG MALAYSIAN
SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
TAY EE LIN
Sunway University
Tel: +60(12)9384236
eelin_tay@hotmail.com
TAM CAI LIAN

Monash University Sunway Campus
Medicine and Health Sciences
Jalan Lagoon Selatan,
46150 Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: +60(3)55144974
Fax: +60(3)55146307
tam.cai.lian@med.monash.edu.my
ABSTRACT
This research aimed to investigate the relationship between parenting styles and stress level among Malaysian
adolescents. A final sample of 140 participants with equal number of males and females, with ages ranging from
13 to 16 years old were recruited. Data collection was conducted in two public secondary schools in Pahang.
This survey included three instruments: Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), Adolescent Stress
Questionnaire (ASQ) and a Demographic Questionnaire. The results showed mothers prefer authoritative
parenting compared to fathers and that parenting styles are not related to adolescents’ stress level. There was
also no gender difference in adolescents’ stress level in home-life, peer pressure and school performance.
Recommendations for future studies and implications of study are discussed.
Keywords: parenting style; stress; adolescent
INTRODUCTION
Jane has been seeing the school counselor for the past two weeks. She is in fact feeling
stressed over the strict parenting she has at home. Her parents have arranged a series of
tuition classes, piano lessons and dance lessons for her that she no longer can handle them
well with the approaching school examination. However, she does not dare voice these
concerns to her parents as they do not usually allow their children to negotiate with them. In
addition, Jane is only allowed to socialize with friends once a month. After a few
counselling sessions, Jane is relieved and grateful that there is someone that she can turn to
when she is facing enormous stress at home and at school.
90
The above case study illustrates how parenting may sometimes heighten the stress
level amongst local adolescents which may then negatively impact on the students’
development and subsequently the country’s development. Factors such as a heavy school
work load, concerns over examination grades, peer pressure or family conflicts may all have
been continuous stressors to students and to worsen this condition, inappropriate parenting
behaviours can elevate the stress level among children.
Optimum stress can act as a motivational force to work towards goals. However,
when the stress level increases, negative consequences such as truancy, drug abuse, alcohol
abuse, fatigue or social delinquency may start to kick in (Melati Sumari & Mariani Md. Nor,
1998). Therefore, a stress coping capability plays an important role in maintaining the
optimal stress level (Valiente, Fabes, Eisenberg, & Spinrad, 2004). A person can acquire
coping skills from the surroundings and daily life events and this is why parents, being the
role model to their children, have the strongest influence in shaping and moulding the
characteristics and coping capability of children (Beyers & Goossens, 2008). Beyers and
Goossens also pointed out that adolescence is the most crucial identity formation period and
parents play an important role during this period. In addition, coping strategies that
adolescents have adopted tend to prolong into adulthood.
Parenting behaviours tend to have an impact on children’s stress level and may
further affect children’s psychosocial development. Baumrind (1971) further stated that
different parenting styles – the authoritative, authoritarian and permissive styles - have
proven to shape children differently. Authoritarian parenting usually causes aggression and
delinquency in children in the western context because when the children cannot bear the
stress of being strictly controlled by parents, they tend to go against parents and behave
delinquently (Baumrind, 1971). Nevertheless, some children may turn out well under
authoritarian parenting. It was also found that authoritarian parenting may lead to a positive
psychosocial competence and academic achievement in Asian children (Ang, 2006).
On the whole, since parenting styles may have different impacts on children’s
development, the current study seeks to explore the relationship between parenting styles
and stress level in the Malaysian context.
Definitions
Baumrind (1971) conceptualised parenting into three main types: authoritative, authoritarian,
and permissive. Authoritative parenting reflects parenting with a balance in discipline and
affection, reasoning with children and being responsive to the children’s demands. On the
other hand, authoritarian parenting values obedience and favours power assertion. It
constitutes the traditional parenting structure whereby children are given no autonomy but
instead have to accept the discipline without questions. In contrast, permissive parenting
gives children a high level of freedom and does not restrain their behaviours unless physical
harm is involved (Rossman & Rea, 2005). The present study focuses on exploring
authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles specifically in the Malaysian context.
Stress can be defined as the judgement of a situation or event as challenging,
demanding and threatening (Hardie, 2005). Byrne, Davenport, and Mazanov (2007) stated
that adolescent stress arises when they are unable to cope with the high intensity and
magnitude of changes faced during the transition period to adulthood. It was stated earlier
that adolescent stress often leads to negative outcomes such as drugs and alcohol abuse or
even to the more severe outcomes such as depression and suicidal attempts (Byrne &
Mazanov, 2002). Byrne et al. (2007) identified ten aspects in adolescents’ life that possibly
act as stressors. The ten aspects are home life, school performance, school attendance,
interaction with teachers, peer pressure, school-leisure time conflict, romantic relationships,
future uncertainty, financial pressure and the emerging of adult responsibility. This present
study measures the relationships between parenting styles and adolescents’ stress level in
the possible stressors as mentioned in Byrne et al. using the self-report method.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Parenting and Impacts on Adolescents
Different parenting styles lead to different development in children in terms of their general
well-being, psychosocial competency and ability to respond to the demands in the
environment (Chen, Dong, & Zhou, 1997; Rossman & Rea, 2005). However, it is too early
to predict children’s development solely based on core parenting styles without considering
the effects of cultural differences. In a study within the western culture, Rossman and Rea
recruited 104 mothers and children from both violent and nonviolent community. They
discovered that authoritative parenting leads to better child adaptation and less externalising
problems such as being less aggressive. In contrast, strong authoritarian parenting leads to
higher learning and conduct problems in children while permissive parenting leads to a
higher anxiety level and higher internalising problems in children such as depression and
social withdrawal. Another study conducted by Kaufmann et al. (2000) with 1,230 mothers
found both authoritarian and authoritative parenting to have positive associations with
healthy adjustments in children.
In the Asian context, Chen et al. (1997) conducted a research on second-grade
Chinese students and parents to examine the association between parenting styles and
students’ adjustment. It was found that authoritarian parenting correlated with higher
aggressive behaviours and lower social competency and academic achievement. Years later,
Ang (2006) conducted a study on Asian adolescents to investigate the effects of perceived
parenting style on psychosocial competence and attitudes towards school. An investigation
on 548 adolescents was carried out and it was found that authoritative fathers encourage
adolescents’ self-reliance in coping, solving problems and perseverance in academic
challenges. However, within the same sample, Malay respondents with perceived
authoritarian mothers had better attitudes towards school. The above studies demonstrated
that the relationship between parenting style and its outcomes are rather inconsistent in
different cultures. Further to this, authoritarianism is not universally correlated with
negative outcomes in children and adolescents.
Inconsistencies in parenting styles and their outcomes in the Asian culture can be
attributed to parental warmth and the concept of “guan” in the Chinese context. Chao (1994)
discussed how Asians, especially the Chinese, emphasise on the ideas of “guan” and “chiao
sun” which indicate parental control and training respectively and are similar to the
characteristics of authoritarian parenting. In the Asian culture, “guan” means to govern and
to care for (Chao, 1993). Strictness may be seen as parental concern in Asian parenting
despite it being equated with parental hostility and aggression in American parenting. Bond
92
et al. (1998) examined the construct of “guan” and concluded that it correlated highly with
parental warmth but not significantly correlated with control factor. The items of “guan” are
in fact quite consistent with the construct of authoritative but not authoritarian according to
Bond et al. (1998). The above researchers have illustrated how Asian parenting behaviours
fall between the continuum of authoritative and authoritarian parenting. Furthermore,
adolescents claimed that authoritarianism is desirable and necessary for harmony in a
collectivistic society (Sorkhabi, 2005). Keshavarz and Rozumah Baharudin (2009) stated
that Malaysian parents endorse authoritarian parenting and it is well accepted in this country.
Malaysia is one of the collectivist countries where children are taught to conform to the
group’s rules, behave in socially acceptable manner, inhibit their own needs and be
considerate of others within the group; in this context it is to obey parents in all aspects
(Keshavarz & Rozumah Baharudin, 2009). Therefore, authoritarian parenting receives
positive perceptions among Asians who largely favour collectivism. Thus, this current study
is interested in examining the association between Malaysian parents’ favoured parenting
styles and adolescents’ stress level, if any.
Previous studies have suggested that fathers and mothers adopt different parenting
styles. A study by McKinney and Renk (2008) with 475 youth suggested that adolescents
perceived mothers to favour authoritative and permissive parenting while fathers favour
more of the authoritarian parenting. Shek (1998) also discovered significant differences in
both parents’ parenting styles within the Chinese community. Students perceived fathers as
less demanding, less responsive, less concerned but harsher to them whereas mothers were
perceived as the opposite. These differences in parenting styles especially among Asians
can be attributed to the cultural values. Fathers are usually seen as the figure of authority at
home, executing punishment and hence they are perceived as less concerned and harsh. In
contrast, mothers are perceived as responsive and concerned because women are more
expressive in their emotions, are more protective and affectionate (Shek, 1998).
Parenting and Adolescents’ Stress
Yamamoto and Davis (1982) conducted a study to compare the perception of stressful life
events among Japanese and American children. In their study involving 248 fourth-sixth
graders, ratings of perceived stress and the frequencies of stressful events experienced by
children from both countries seemed to be similar. This study also identified common
stressors in children, which can be classified into three main domains: home-life, school
related issues and social events. In Malaysia, Melati Sumari and Mariani Md. Nor (1998)
concluded that apart from adolescence-adulthood transition pressure, school-related issues,
peer pressure, family and parenting are among the common stressors. LaRue and Herrman
(2008) conducted a qualitative study on 120 adolescents and identified common stressors
faced by these youth to be school-related factors concerning passing grades, money-related
issues, conflicts with parents and relationship with friends and significant others. These
findings provided strong support to acknowledge family, school and social circles as the
three main dimensions of adolescents’ stressors and they are relevant across cultures.
The next focus is on the relationships between parenting styles and stress.
Hildebrand (2000) claimed that stress occurs when children feel too much pressure and
rigidity from their parents, in addition to the high expectations imposed on them to excel in
their studies. Children tend to feel challenged and in response to meeting high parental
expectations, stress surfaces within them. Rigidity and pressure from parents are associated
with authoritarianism as well. Likewise, in Melati Sumari and Mariani Md. Nor’s (1998)
review, one of the factors that causes stress in adolescents is being treated like young
children but at the same time expected to behave like adults. Additionally, parents who are
impatient with their teenagers, rigid in their interaction and controlling with minimal give-
and-take contribute to the rising stress level in youths (Melati Sumari & Mariani Md. Nor,
1998). The above triggers conflicts between children and parents and causes adolescents to
experience stress.
Tajularipin, Aminuddin, Vizata and Saifuddin (2009) conducted a study on 155
teenagers in Malaysia to explore the stress level among urban and rural youths. They made a
general conclusion that home-stability, parenting styles and parent-child relationships
contributed to youth’s stress level. Another study conducted by Dwairy and Menshar (2006)
on 351 Egyptians adolescents concluded that authoritarian parenting in a collectivistic
culture is not as destructive to adolescents’ mental health as compared to the West. These
studies show that there is an association between parenting styles and adolescents’ stress
and that authoritarianism possibly yields a positive outcome in a collectivist culture.
Gender Differences
Previous studies discovered that stress levels of adolescents differ in gender. Tajularipin et
al. (2009) discovered that females have a significantly higher level of stress than males
though the differences were small. In Singapore, Yeo, Ang, Chong and Huan (2007)
conducted a study on 1,042 high school students to measure their concerns over emotional
well-being. The findings showed that girls had higher emotional distress and anxiety over
personal concerns such as worries and feelings of hopelessness. In contrast, Kristel, Young
and Chambliss (1997) carried out a survey with 798 high school students but discovered no
significant gender difference in the stress level despite more females reporting problems
concerning family and friends. Despite the mixed findings, they do reflect that in general
females have higher stress than males. The present study is also interested in exploring the
gender difference in adolescents’ stress level in Malaysia, if any.
PURPOSE OF STUDY AND HYPOTHESIS
The purpose of this study is to examine parenting styles adopted by both fathers and
mothers separately, before exploring the relationships between perceived parenting styles
with stress level among Malaysian adolescents. Gender differences in terms of stress level
will be examined. A total of five (5) hypotheses have been proposed for this study:
1) Adolescents perceive their father as being authoritarian relative to their mother.
2) Adolescents perceive their mother as being authoritative relative to their father.
3) Adolescents with perceived authoritarian paternal parenting will display lower
stress level especially in the aspects of home life, peer pressure and school
performance in comparison with authoritative and permissive parenting styles.
4) Adolescents with perceived authoritative maternal parenting will display lower
stress level especially in the aspects of home life, peer pressure and school
performance in comparison with authoritarian and permissive parenting styles.
94
5) Adolescent females will have a higher level of stress in the aspects of home life,
peer pressure and school performance as compared to adolescent males.
METHOD
Study design
This was a survey study designed to explore the relationships between parenting styles and
adolescents’ stress level in Malaysia. This study relied on self-report measures to obtain
adolescents’ perceived parenting styles and stress level. Independent variables included the
gender of students and parenting styles while the dependent variable was the adolescents’
stress level.
Participants
A total of 161 students were recruited from two public secondary schools in Malaysia.
Participants with single parents were excluded. After data clearing, a final sample of 140
participants with equal gender was randomly selected using SPSS software. The participants’
age ranged from 13 to 16 years old with a mean of 14.48 years (SD = 1.15).
Measurements
The two instruments used were the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and the
Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ).There were two versions of PAQ, each with
modifications for appropriate references to gender - “mother” was changed to “father” while
“she” was changed to “he”.
The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ)
A 30-item instrument was designed to measure a child’s perceived parenting styles in terms
of authority and disciplinary practices (Buri, 1991). All items are rated on a 5-points Likert
scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The 30 items are divided into
three subscales: Permissive (1, 6, 10, 13, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 28); Authoritarian (2, 3, 7, 9, 12,
16, 18, 25, 26, 29); Authoritative (4, 5, 8, 11, 15, 20, 22, 23, 27, 30). Ten items in each
subscale are summed up to obtain scores ranging from 10-50. A subscale with the highest
score indicates the type of parenting adopted. The PAQ has good internal consistency with
alphas ranging from .74 to .87 and stable test-retest reliabilities over two-week period
ranging from .77 to .92. Lastly, the PAQ also has good construct validity with the
authoritative level correlating positively to the respondents’ self-esteem and the
authoritarian level correlating negatively to self-esteem (Buri, 1991).
The Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ)
The ASQ is a revised version of the one by Byrne et al. (2007). The revised version consists
of 58 items whereas the original ASQ consists of 31 items. The revised version was
designed to measure the dimensions of stressor amongst adolescents and was useful in both
the clinical and research contexts. This revised ASQ was completed by modifying the
original ASQ, using adolescent focus groups to confirm original items, including stressors
not covered by the original ASQ and reviewing the structure and wording of items. These
58 items reflect a total of ten stressor dimensions: Stress of home life (1, 2, 4, 13, 21, 29, 31,
35, 37, 44, 46, 48, 49); Stress of school performance (5, 6, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 43); Stress of
school attendance (3, 33, 39); Stress of romantic relationships (17, 27, 40, 52, 58); Stress of
peer pressure (8, 28, 30, 32, 36, 54, 56); Stress of teacher interaction (18, 25, 41, 42, 45, 55,
57); Stress of future uncertainty (7, 20, 34); Stress of school/leisure conflicts (19, 23, 24, 26,
53); Stress of financial pressure (22, 38, 47, 51); and Stress of emerging adult responsibility
(10, 11, 50). All items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all stressful
or is irrelevant to me) to 5 (very stressful). Scoring is done by summing responses for all
items under each component and higher scores indicate higher stress experienced for that
stressor dimension. Some dimensions were modestly correlated hence the total score was
not computed to avoid the chances of Type I error (Byrne et al., 2007).
The ASQ has modest but significant concurrent validity with three other criterion
measures in the predicted directions: correlated positively with anxiety (r = .26 to .43) and
depression (r = .35 to .56) and correlated negatively with self-esteem (r = -.19 to -.40).
Besides, the ASQ has strong internal reliabilities with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from .62–
.92. Test-retest reliabilities over one-week period showed reliable temporal stability for all
ten components ranging from .68–.88. The ASQ was developed through adolescents’
perspective suggesting the practicality of ASQ across the adolescence period (Byrne et al.,
2007).
Procedure
Students from three secondary schools were approached, one for a pilot study while another
two for the main data collection. Permission to conduct this study was obtained from the
relevant government agencies. The survey was conducted only during the students’ free
period to prevent disruption to their lessons. Classes were selected randomly based on
availability with the exclusion of Form 3 and Form 5 classes due to the government
examinations they were sitting for. Counselors assisted in distributing parent’s consent
letters to students one to two days before the survey was conducted. On the data collection
day, parents’ consent letters were collected and students’ consent letters were distributed
and collected on the spot. Only students with parental consent and willingness to participate
were given the questionnaires. The average time needed to complete the questionnaires was
approximately 30 minutes.
RESULTS
Parenting Styles
To test the favoured parenting styles, a ‘between subjects t’ test was used with an alpha
level of .05. As opposed to what was being hypothesised, fathers were not significantly
perceived as authoritarian over mothers, t(139) = 1.33, p > .05 (see Table 1). Fathers scored
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33.97 (SD = 6.22) for authoritarian parenting while mothers scored 34.38 (SD = 6.00).
Fathers and mothers in this sample simply displayed similar levels of authoritarian parenting.
As hypothesised, there were significant differences in terms of authoritative
parenting styles, t(139) = 3.06, p < .01 (see Table 1). The mean score for paternal
authoritative parenting was 34.90 (SD = 6.44) while the mean for maternal authoritative
parenting was 36.11 (SD = 5.84). This indicated that Malaysian mothers were perceived to
have adopted more authoritative parenting compared to the fathers.
Table 1. Paired Sample T-test for Parenting Styles between Parents

Variable Father Mother t (139)
Authoritarian Parenting 33.97 (SD = 6.22) 34.38 (SD = 6.00) 1.33
Authoritative Parenting 34.90 (SD = 6.44) 36.11 (SD = 5.84) 3.06**
** p < .01.
Parenting Styles Correlation with Adolescents’ Stress Level
A bivariate correlation test was used to examine the relationship between parenting styles
and adolescents’ stress level. For the PAQ, subscales with higher scores indicated the
parenting style adopted by a parent. A higher score in the ASQ subcomponents indicated a
higher stress level in that particular dimension. It was hypothesised that adolescents with
perceived authoritarian paternal parenting will eventually display lower levels of stress
especially in the aspects of home life, peer pressure and school performance. However a
bivariate correlation analysis showed authoritarian paternal parenting did not have a
significant correlation with the stress of home-life with r = .11, p > .05, the stress of peer
pressure with r = -.06, p > .05 and the stress of school performance with r = .02, p > .05. In
fact, no significant correlation was observed between any of the stress subcomponents with
authoritarian paternal parenting (see Table 2). This indicated that authoritarian paternal
parenting did not have any correlation in one’s stress level thus the third hypothesis was not
supported.
Next, it was also hypothesised that adolescents with perceived authoritative
maternal parenting will display lower stress especially in the aspects of home life, peer
pressure and school performance. The findings, however, did not support this hypothesis. A
bivariate correlation analysis showed a slight variation in the results. Authoritative maternal
parenting did not correlate significantly with the three subcomponents as mentioned, with r
= .03, p > .05 for the stress of home-life, r = -.01, p > .05 for the stress of peer pressure and
r = -.08, p > .05 for the stress of school performance. However, it did correlate positively
with the stress of emerging adult responsibility with r = .23, p < .01 (see Table 2). Hence
this analysis showed authoritative maternal parenting did not have a significant relationship
with the three stress subcomponents but correlated with higher stress of the emerging adult
responsibility among adolescents.
Table 2. Correlation between Parenting Styles (PAQ) and Adolescents’ Stress Level
(ASQ)
Adolescent Stress Authoritarian Paternal Authoritarian Maternal
Questionnaire (ASQ) Parenting Parenting
Home-Life .11 .03
Peer Pressure -.06 -.01
School Performance .02 -.08
School Attendance -.09 .00
Romantic Relationship -.05 .08
Teacher Interaction -.01 .07
Future Uncertainty -.11 -.06
School-Leisure Conflict -.08 -.02
Financial Pressure -.02 .02
Adult Responsibility .09 .23**
** p < .01.
Table 3. Matrix Correlations among the 10 Stress Subcomponents

HL SP SA RR PP TI FU SL FP AR
HL 1 .59(**) .20(*) .44(**) .67(**) .73(**) .57(**) .53(**) .55(**) .39(**)
SP 1 .41(**) .17(*) .57(**) .52(**) .70(**) .58(**) .53(**) .45(**)
SA 1 .27(**) .19(*) .35(**) .30(**) .43(**) .36(**) .09
RR 1 .39(**) .48(**) .32(**) .43(**) .32(**) .11
PP 1 .67(**) .65(**) .47(**) .58(**) .41(**)
TI 1 .52(**) .59(**) .62(**) .35(**)
FU 1 .48(**) .51(**) .42(**)
SL 1 .54(**) .25(**)
FP 1 .54(**)
AR 1
Note. HL = Stress of Home Life; SP = Stress of School Performance; SA = Stress of School Attendance; RR
= Stress of Romantic Relationship; PP = Stress of Peer Pressure; TI = Stress of Teacher Interaction; FU = Stress
of Future Uncertainty; SL = Stress of School/ Leisure Conflict; FP = Stress of Financial Pressure; AR = Stress of
Emerging Adult Responsibility.
*p <.05. ** p < .01.
Despite the correlation between perceived authoritative maternal parenting with the
stress of emerging adult responsibility not predicted earlier, this correlation made sense and
was supported by the matrix correlation (see Table 3). The stress of emerging adult
responsibility correlated strongly with the other three stress subcomponents, with r = .39,
p < .01 for the stress of home life, r = .41, p < .01 for the stress of peer pressure and r = .45,
p < .01 for the stress of school performance. This indicated that these stress subcomponents
were somehow inter-correlated.
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Gender Differences
It was also hypothesised that females will display a higher stress level especially in the
aspects of home life, peer pressure and school performance as compared to males. Using the
independent-group t test, results analysis showed no significant differences between gender
and the three stress subcomponents mentioned. As shown in Table 4, t(138) = -.43, p > .05
for stress of home-life, t(138) = -.02, p > .05 for stress of peer pressure and t(138) = -.98,
p > .05 for stress of school performance. Females and males experience a similar level of
stress in these three subcomponents thus the fifth hypothesis was not supported.
However, there were gender differences for the stress of school attendance and the
stress of romantic relationships instead. Males scored 6.94 (SD = 2.89) while females scored
5.99 (SD = 2.78) for stress of school attendance with t(138) = 1.99, p < .05 (see Table 4).
As for the stress of romantic relationship, males scored 11.40 (SD = 4.03) while females
scored 9.16 (SD = 4.51) with t(138) = 3.10, p < .01 (see Table 4). In fact, this analysis
showed males have a higher stress level than females in the subcomponents of the stress of
school attendance and the stress of romantic relationship.
Table 4. Independent Sample T-test for Stress Level between Genders

Variable Male Female t (138)
Stress of Home-Life 34.77 (SD = 8.95) 35.47 (SD = 10.34) -.43
Stress of Peer Pressure 19.11 (SD = 4.99) 19.13(SD = 5.82) -.02
Stress of School Performance 23.79 (SD = 6.72) 24.86 (SD = 6.29) -.98
Stress of School Attendance 6.94 (SD = 2.89) 5.99 (SD = 2.78) 1.99*
Stress of Romantic Relationship 11.40 (SD = 4.03) 9.16 (SD = 4.51) 3.10**
*p <.05. ** p < .01.
DISCUSSION
Parenting Styles
This study hypothesised that adolescents perceive fathers as authoritarian relative to

mothers. The results refute this hypothesis and thus do not support previous studies that
concluded fathers to be more authoritarian (McKinney & Renk, 2008; Shek, 1998).
However, the present analysis is congruent with Ong’s (2000) study on Singapore
adolescents which discovered that fathers were perceived as being less strict and harsh as
expected whereas mothers were relatively more strict and controlling. Habibah and Tan
(2009) also performed a study on youths in Malaysia and found that both fathers and
mothers were perceived as authoritative instead. They speculated parents’ higher education
level might have contributed to their findings and this possibly explains the current finding
too. It is speculated in this study that fathers might have been exposed to the negative
outcomes of authoritarianism through education or the media and hence decreased the
practice. Moreover, Xu’s et al. (2005) study claimed Chinese parenting does not have clear
distinctions between being authoritarian and being authoritative. Asian mothers emphasise
traditional values like strictness, responsiveness and parental acceptance which are the
attributes of both authoritarian and authoritative parenting. This also explains why mothers
are perceived to have similar authoritarian level as fathers in this study. The present analysis
thus indicates that Malaysian fathers are not more authoritarian relative to mothers as
perceived by adolescents.
The present study hypothesised that Malaysian mothers will be perceived as
authoritative relative to the fathers. The results of the study supports the hypothesis and is in
line with the findings by Ong (2000) whereby mothers are found to be not only nurturing,
affectionate and supportive but also more reasonable with adolescents. The current result
also supports the study by McKinney and Renk (2008) as older adolescents perceived
mothers as more authoritative and permissive. Despite being relatively strict, Asian mothers
are responsive, warm and supportive towards their children. In addition, it is possible that
mothers in the current sample are perceived as more authoritative due to the level of these
mothers’ involvement in their children’s lives. When there are more interactions,
adolescents might perceive their mothers as less harsh, more responsive, more
understanding and more approachable comparatively (Ong, 2000; Shek, 1998). Thus,
Malaysian mothers are still perceived as authoritative despite their strictness.
Parenting Styles and Adolescents’ Stress Level
Adolescents with perceived authoritarian paternal parenting or perceived authoritative

maternal parenting were hypothesised to experience a lower stress level. Result analyses do
not support both hypotheses which indicate that both parenting styles do not correlate with
adolescents’ stress level. These findings are incongruent with the review by Melati Sumari
and Mariani Md. Nor (1998) and the study by Tajularipin et al. (2009) which claimed that
parenting styles are associated with adolescents’ stress. Nevertheless, a study by Yeo et al.
(2007) did find that adolescents somehow do not show higher stress over matters related to
school, family and peer relationships which support the current insignificant correlation
between parenting styles and the three stressor dimensions.
In the present study, parenting styles may have an indirect relationship with
adolescents’ stress but not the main contributing factor. During adolescence, even positive
parenting might not be effective in moderating the level of psychological distress (Ong,
2000). The intensity of academic pressure (Hui, 2001) and the adolescent’s personality
might possibly offset the influences of parenting (Huan, Yeo, Ang, & Chong, 2006). A
study in Malaysia concluded that the majority of adolescents identified academic issues as a
stressor followed by relationship issues at home and at school (Intan Hashimah, 2007). A
study by Huan et al. (2006) on Singapore adolescents showed that optimistic individuals
are reported to have lower stress as compared to those who are pessimistic. Hence, it is
speculated that academic-related pressure or personality dispositions might have greater
influence over parenting styles in relation to the adolescents’ stress level in the present
sample.
In addition, current analysis showed that perceived authoritative maternal parenting
is correlated with the stress of emerging adult responsibility instead. The transition to
adulthood, in the view of adolescents, includes being independent, having autonomy and
full responsibility over their own lives (Hartmann & Swartz, 2006). Since authoritative
parenting involves a sharing of autonomy and trust between parent and child, it is therefore
100
speculated that adolescents might be concerned over the failure to appreciate the autonomy
and independence given which will then disappoint their parents further.
Gender Differences in Stress Level
Current findings also did not support the hypothesis which predicted female adolescents to
experience higher stress especially in home life, peer pressure and school performance
compared to males. This finding is incongruent with earlier studies (Byrne et al., 2007; Yeo
et al., 2007). However, this finding is congruent with the study by Kristel et al. (1997)
which did not find gender difference in stress level and concluded instead that this problem
is general for adolescents. A possible explanation for this finding is the willingness of
adolescents to report and express their emotional concerns. Girls are observed to be more
willing in reporting their problems and emotional distress than boys (Yeo et al., 2007).
Nevertheless, in the present sample, both females and males may have a similar level of
willingness to report and share their personal concerns over issues related to peer pressure,
parenting and school matters since these matters are rather common among adolescents.
Besides, the level of perceived stress might have been influenced by stress moderators like
adolescents’ perceived self-worth (Robinson, Garber, & Hilsman, 1995) and perceived
control and social support (Benson & Deeter, 1992). All these factors might have moderated
the perceived stress level among adolescents.
In contrast to the hypothesis, males had significantly higher stress than females in
the subcomponents of school attendance and romantic relationship. This finding is
incongruent with previous studies. In the study by Byrne et al. (2007), no significant gender
difference was evident for the stress of school attendance dimension while females scored
significantly higher than males in the stress of romantic relationship dimension. In another
study, it was reported that females experienced a larger increase in stress level than males
when they were involved in a romantic relationship (Joyner & Udry, 2000). Since the
current study showed males experiencing higher stress than females in the stress of school
attendance, it is speculated that issues like being absent from school or the internal conflict
of conformity to peers in truancy versus the responsibility of a student may be more
prominent among the male adolescents in the present sample. Moreover, females might also
be less willing or more ashamed to report their concerns over romantic relationships or as
the level of maturity increases, female adolescents do not easily get stressed over romantic
issues.
Limitations and Strengths of Study
This study has a few limitations. Firstly, it relied solely on the adolescents’ self-report
measures which might not be able to yield accurate information with regards to parenting
styles. Adolescents’ perception of parenting behaviours could have been influenced by their
beliefs and might not be consistent with parents’ actual parenting behaviour (Steinberg,
Mounts, Lamborn, & Dornbusch, 1991). Another limitation was the use of a cross-sectional
design to examine developmental research questions (Recklitis & Noam, 1999). One’s
stress level would not be the same across the years as these variables fluctuate in accordance
to life experiences. However, findings from this cross-sectional study could still provide
preliminary trends of the relationships between perceived parenting styles with adolescents’
perceived stress. A third limitation was the correlational design; a correlational design could
only provide information with reference to the relationships between variables but was
unable to determine the causes and effects among these variables to provide a more in-depth
understanding of the issues (McKinney & Renk, 2008).
Despite the limitations, steps have been taken to ensure mothers’ and fathers’
parenting scores were not combined or averaged. In this study, it was uncertain as to what
extent the father and mother displayed similar parenting styles. Averaging the parenting
scores might over or under rate the parenting styles and also the possible influence on
adolescents (Simons & Conger, 2007). Additionally, in Bronstein’s study (1984), the father
displayed different interactions towards son and daughter as well. Therefore, mothers and
fathers’ parenting styles were examined separately in this study to maximise the accuracy of
the results. The instruments used have strong reliabilities (Buri, 1991; Byrne et al., 2007)
while a pilot study was conducted to obtain the reliability of translated instruments used in
the Malaysian context. In addition, the current sample is representative of Malaysian
adolescents to a certain extent because recruitment of participants was carried out in two
public secondary schools with the inclusion of the three main races. Finally, Form 3 and
Form 5 students who were sitting for the major government examinations were excluded to
rule out the possibility of overrated stress levels caused solely by the examinations.
Recommendations for Future Studies
Mothers and fathers might adopt different parenting styles while certain combinations of
parenting might be more or less effective than others due to the buffering effects of different
parenting styles. Having one authoritative parent could offset the less positive outcomes
associated with the uninvolved parent (Simons & Conger, 2007). In this case, adolescents’
development under consistent or inconsistent parenting can be further investigated.
Secondly, since parental control has different indications in different cultures (Xu et al.,
2005), future studies may examine how specific parenting dimensions such as warmth,
democracy, reasoning or support can contribute to adolescents’ development across various
cultures (Habibah & Tan, 2009). Next, given that parenting behaviours and one’s stress
level may change over time, a longitudinal study can be conducted to further elaborate and
support the findings from the present cross-sectional study. As for the methodology, instead
of the reliance on adolescents’ self reports on parenting styles, data collection through
structured interviews from both adolescents and parents together with observations may
yield more accurate and reliable results.
CONCLUSION
This study aimed to explore perceived parenting styles among Malaysian parents and also
the relationship between perceived parenting styles with adolescents’ perceived stress levels.
The general conclusion is that Malaysian fathers are not perceived to be authoritarian over
mothers. However, mothers are perceived to be more authoritative than fathers. Parenting
styles, specifically the authoritarian paternal and authoritative maternal parenting, do not
correlate with adolescents’ stress level as predicted. Furthermore, no gender difference is
evident for the three stress dimensions of home life, school performance and peer pressure.
102
The findings from this study will alert practitioners and parents that Malaysian fathers in
fact do not favour authoritarianism. This information offers insights for practitioners who
work with Malaysian parents in promoting adolescents’ well-being and psychosocial
development and also to reassess their parenting strategies throughout the years. In contrast,
since parenting behaviours and adolescents’ stress level do not correlate, this study then
redirects research focus to explore other factors which may have a direct influence on
adolescents’ stress level in Malaysia.
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK ENVIRONMENT

STRESS AND MARITAL HAPPINESS AMONG SOFTWARE
PROFESSIONALS
PRIYADARSHINI SRINIVASAN
Sunway University
No.5, Jalan Universiti,
Bandar Sunway, 46150 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia
priyas@sunway.edu.my
ABSTRACT
The aim of this research paper is to examine the relationship between marital happiness and work environment
stress among software professionals. The participants in this research consist of 130 adults (65 software
professionals and 65 non-software professionals) who are married and working. The age range was from 25-55
years old with a mean age of 38.49 years. In this study there were 73 (56.2%) male participants, 57 (43.8%)
female participants. A survey method was used in this study and participants were required to complete the
Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and Employee survey. This study found that there is a significant relationship
between work environment stress and marital happiness thus confirming the hypotheses proposed in this study.
The study found that software professionals experience more work environment stress and less marital happiness
compared to non-software professionals.
Keywords: marital happiness, work environment stress, software profession.
INTRODUCTION
In recent decades there has been many changes in our lifestyles, technology has advanced,
organizations have made huge changes and more women have entered the work force. There
are also changes in the family structure and we are facing challenges like balancing work
and family demands which concerns both individuals and organizations. A number of
research studies have been conducted to understand the challenges of work environment and
its effect on employees’ lifestyle; in this current research investigation the researcher aims to
investigate the effect of work environment on marital happiness. The researcher is interested
to study the effect of work environment of software and non-software professionals
(academicians and administrators) on their marital happiness, to know whether there is any
difference in the work environment of these two groups and whether it has any effect on
their marital happiness. A review of earlier research in this area is reviewed to discuss the
proposed definitions.
Marriage - A Social System
“I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage” Gandhi. “My advice to you is
to get married. If you find a good wife, you’ll be happy, if not, you’ll become a
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philosopher”- Socrates. These are quotes of political and philosophical leaders about
marriage. Marriage is an arrangement that is strictly human; it is an institutional
arrangement between persons to publicly recognize social and intimate bonds (Seccombe,
2008). Marriage is universal and it is both a social institution and a personal relationship,
though there are differences in the practice of it among different ethnic groups. Marriage is
seen as a social institution as there are rules, rights and responsibilities surrounding marriage
because it is seen as the stabilising force within the societies (Seccombe, 2008). As a
personal relationship, marriage is deeply meaningful to the individuals involved although
“meaningful” is conceptualised differently within social, historical and cultural contexts.
William Stephens in 1963 (as cited in Seccombe, 2008) provides a broad definition of
marriage as a socially legitimate sexual union begun with a public announcement
undertaken with some idea of performance and assumed with a more or less explicit
marriage contract that spells out reciprocal obligations between spouses and their children.
Today’s scenario shows that marriages are experiencing a change. After World War II
the changes in the political, economic, religious orientations and development of new
scientific knowledge has led to a new workforce, which has increased the status of women
but has also raised other issues in the 21st century such as the quality of child care and high
divorce rates (Seccombe , 2008). Researchers have attempted to study marital quality since
the 1940s. It is difficult to define marital happiness, satisfaction and success because of its
multitude dimensions. Of course there are various variables contributing to marital
happiness such as age, shared values and goals, quality and stability, the marriage of the
couples’ parents, presence of children, frequency and satisfaction with sexual relationship
(Seccombe, 2008), and division of labour. Since post World War II change in the life style
of people has affected the social institution of ‘marriage’.
One of the biggest sources of stress in marriage is trying to balance work and family.
The potential for conflict and stress increases as most workers struggle with the demands of
balancing paid employment and home responsibilities (Landy & Conte, 2004).
Work Environment Stress and its Effects
Workers are exposed to a wide variety of work “conditions” which include physical
conditions such as heat, light, and noise and psychological conditions such as work space,
conflict and responsibility (Seccombe, 2008). Initially it is exciting to take up a job and its
challenges but increasing work load, deadlines, difficult bosses or coworkers can place
considerable pressure and strain on an employee. Therefore, the work environment
commonly produces stress in an employee which the worker needs to cope with. Failing to
do so can result in worker stress. ‘Worker stress’ can be defined as physiological and
psychological reactions to an event that is perceived to be threatening or taxing (Riggio,
2009).
Organizational sources of stress come from the work environment and can be broken
down into two subcategories: work task and work roles. The work task stressors are work
overload and underutilization. The work role stressors are job ambiguity, lack of control,
physical work conditions, interpersonal stress, harassment, work-family conflict and
organizational change (Riggio, 2009).
A very important source of stress that extends beyond the boundaries of the organisation
is work-family conflict. In earlier days home and work were two different areas unrelated to
each other. Men went to work and women stayed at home but today we recognize that work
and home are not two separate domains. Instead they are highly interrelated with one
another. Men and women are increasingly involved in work both inside and outside the
home (Seccombe, 2008). People obviously have both work and non-work life. For many
individuals in the 30-50 years old age range, non-work life is dominated by the family. An
individual’s life is out of balance when too much of time and energy are invested in one
domain (Landy & Conte, 2004). Most research and theory related to work-family balance
actually concentrates on the effects of lack of balance. These effects are often discussed in
terms of the stress created by conflicting demands between work and non-work activities.
Industrial and organisational researches have manifested interest in family related issues
and marital happiness in relation to the work environment only for the past two decades.
Zedeck (as cited in Muchinsky, 2006) described the following three topics as a target of
research in family conflict:
a. The effect of work on family – the impact of work factors over family matters is
examined.
b. The effect of family on work – the impact of structural and developmental aspects of
the family on work.
c. The family-work interaction – this perspective views work and family as interacting
and concludes that there is a simple or direct link between work and family matters.
Thus, we can describe work–family balance as an area of research that investigates

whether the satisfaction that one experiences at work affects the satisfaction that one
experiences in the non-work environment and vice versa. Work–family conflict occurs when
workers experience conflict between the roles they fulfill at work and in their personal lives.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Work-Family Conflict and Work Demands
Lu, Chang, Chang, Wu and Cooper (2008) explored relations between work/family
demands, work flexibility, work/family conflict, and work-related outcomes in the cultural
context of the Chinese in Taiwan, using a national probability sample. For Taiwanese
employees, work demands were positively related to work/family conflicts whereas both
work and family demands were positively related to family/work conflict. Work/family
conflict was negatively related to job satisfaction and family/work conflict to organizational
commitment. More importantly, the authors found that organizational policies and practices
such as work flexibility could alleviate feelings of work interfering with family, further
enhancing job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It is recommended that various
family-friendly company policies be reformulated taking into account core cultural values
such as individualism-collectivism.
A study by Valcour (2007) investigated the relationship of work hours, job complexity,
and control over work time to satisfaction with work-family balance among 570 call center
employees. The results showed that workers with low control over work time experienced a
decline in work-family balance satisfaction while workers with high control over work time
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did not. Ilies et al. (2007) conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the perceptions of
work load over work-family conflict. The results showed that there is a significant
relationship between perception of workload and work-family conflict even when the work
time is controlled. Another research investigation by Thomas and Ganster (1995) examined
the direct and indirect effects of organizational policies and practices that are supportive of
family responsibilities on work-family conflict and psychological, physical, and behavioral
measures of strain. The survey data were gathered at 45 acute-care facilities from 398 health
professionals who had children aged 16 years or younger at home. Supportive practices,
especially flexible scheduling and supportive supervisors, had direct positive effects on
employee perceptions of control over work and family matters. Control perceptions, in turn,
were associated with lower levels of work family conflict, job dissatisfaction, depression,
somatic complaints, and blood cholesterol. These results suggest that organizations can take
steps that can increase employees' control over family responsibilities and that this control
might help employees better manage conflicting demands of work and family life.
All the above studies indicate that there is a strong relationship between work demands
such as work time, work load, organizational policies and their marital happiness. The
studies also show that when there is a supportive organizational policy or demand for it, it
directly helps in the reduction of work family conflict.
Marital Happiness and Job Stressors
Story and Repetti (2006) conducted a hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) among 43
couples to investigate the effect of daily fluctuations in marital behavior (anger and
withdrawal) as a function of same-day job stressors. The results show that there are great
significant relations between job stressors and marital interaction; the results also suggest
that spouses in high-conflict families may be especially vulnerable to the effects of job
stressors on marital interaction.
In a research investigation by Baltes and Heydens-Gahi (2003), the role of selection,
optimisation, and compensation (SOC) behaviors in relation to both job and family stressors
and work-in-family (WIF) conflict and family-in-work (FIW) conflict was examined. The
results suggest that the use of general SOC behaviours in both work and family domains are
related to lower amounts of job and family stressors and subsequently lower amounts of
WIF conflict and FIW conflict.
Another study conducted by Wierda-Boer, Gerris and Vermulst (2009) examined how
personality, domain-specific stress, and work-family interference are interrelated. A
questionnaire data of 276 Dutch dual-earner couples with young children were analyzed
using structural equation modeling. The findings demonstrated that job stress and parenting
stress were positively related to work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict
respectively. For women, additionally, family-to-work conflict is strongly associated with
increased levels of job stress. Finally, emotional stability functioned as an indirect predictor
of work-family interference by decreasing the levels of job stress and parenting stress for
both genders, but in distinctive ways. The use of couple data and the inclusion of personality
showed a valuable extension of existing models linking work and family.
These research investigations reveal that there is also a strong relationship between
marital happiness/satisfaction and job stressors and the studies also indicate that when the
job stressors are reduced this in turn reduces the work family conflict and increases the
marital satisfaction.
Marital Happiness, Satisfaction, and Well-being
Bakker, Demerouti and Burke (2009) studied 168 dual-earner couples and examined the
relationship between workaholism and relationship satisfaction. More specifically, on the
basis of the literature, it was hypothesized that workaholism is positively related to work–
family conflict. In addition, the authors predicted that workaholism is related to reduced
support provided to the partner, through work–family conflict, and that individuals who
receive considerable support from their partners are more satisfied with their relationship.
Finally, the authors hypothesized a direct crossover of relationship satisfaction between
partners. The results of structural equation modeling analyses using the matched responses
of both partners supported these hypotheses. Moreover, in line with predictions, the authors
found that gender did not affect the strength of the relationships in the proposed model. The
authors discuss workplace interventions as possible ways to help workaholics and their
partners.
Graves, Ohlott and Ruderman (2007) conducted a study on 346 managers to investigate
the family role commitment (i.e.marital role commitment, parental role commitment) and
found that it has simultaneous negative and positive effects on managers’ life satisfaction,
career satisfaction, and performance through family-to-work interference and enhancement.
The results showed that marital role commitment was associated with increased
enhancement, which in turn seemed to reduce strain and strengthen outcomes. The study
also reflected that marital role commitments had more benefits than costs.
Campbell and Snow (1992) investigated the relationship between male gender role
conflict, family environment, and marital satisfaction. Seventy married men completed self-
report instruments measuring 4 aspects of male gender role conflict, 2 aspects of family
environment, and marital satisfaction. The results indicate that restrictive emotionality,
conflicts between work or school and family relations, and family cohesion are related to
marital satisfaction. The various factors of male gender role conflict and family environment
account for 46.8% of the variance in marital satisfaction. The results suggest that men who
have lower levels of marital satisfaction are less able or willing to express emotions, have
higher levels of conflict between work or school and family relationship, and have lower
levels of family cohesion.
Schulz, Cowan, Cowan and Brennan (2004) explored how daily changes in workday
pace and end-of-the-workday mood were related to nightly variations in withdrawn and
angry marital behavior. For 3 days, 82 husbands and wives from 42 couples completed
questionnaires at the end of the workday and at bedtime. More negatively arousing
workdays were linked with angrier marital behavior for women and less angry and more
withdrawn behavior for men. Daily changes in workday pace predicted fluctuations in
women’s, but not men’s, marital behavior. Several of these workday–marital behavior
connections varied by the level of marital satisfaction. In contrast to the gender differences
in responses to workday stress, no differences were found in typical marital behaviors.
These findings suggest that gender differences are enhanced under stress.
Perrone and Worthington (2001) proposed and tested a model of marital quality among
individuals (52 men, 55 women) in dual-career marriages. The model was constructed
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within a social role framework and includes variables that positively influence marital
quality, negatively influence marital quality, and those that mediate the relationship between
the negative factors and marital quality. A path analysis indicated that marital quality was
predicted directly by love, sexual satisfaction, communication, and satisfaction with the
dual-career lifestyle. Objective demands of job and family roles predicted perceived job-
family role strain. Coping, but not perceived equity, mediated the relationship between role
strain and marital quality. Combined income and social support impacted marital quality
indirectly through satisfaction with the dual-career lifestyle.
Mikkelsen and Burke (2004) examined potential predictors of work–family conflict and
marital partner concerns and the consequences of these 2 work–family measures on
indicators of psychological and physical well-being. Data were collected, using self-report
questionnaires, from 766 male and female police officers in Norway. Job demands and
burnout components (exhaustion, cynicism) emerged as strong predictors of the 2 work–
family measures. Work–family conflict was also found to have significant negative
relationships with measures of psychological health but not physical health.
Marital Happiness and Professional Choice
There has always been research focus in the areas of work demands, role conflict, work
environment, time constraints in investigating the work – family conflict, but a few studies
have focused on the occupational membership of a person and its relationship with work-
family conflict. A research conducted by Dierdorff and Ellington (2008) investigated the 3
behavior-based antecedents of work–family conflict linked specifically to occupational work
role requirements (interdependence, responsibility for others, and interpersonal conflict).
Results from multilevel analysis indicate that significant variance in work–family conflict is
attributable to the occupation in which someone works. Interdependence and responsibility
for others predict work–family conflict, even after controlling for several time- and strain-
based sources. A study conducted by Dunnette (1999) identified that the extent to which
interpersonal interactions comprise work roles largely depends on occupational
membership. By definition, work and worker requirements significantly vary across
occupations. Therefore, occupational membership can serve as a boundary condition for
differences in behavior-based sources of work–family conflict, vis-à-vis the specific
differences in behavioral requirements directly inherent to occupations.
It is important to recognize that examining differences in work–family conflict across
occupations naturally involves varying levels of analysis, as individuals are “nested” within
occupations. One way to conceptualize occupations in this manner is by considering the
distinct behavioral contexts that occupations generate. These behavioral contexts are
delineated by the variety of situational opportunities and constraints commensurate to an
occupation (Johns, 2006, as cited in, Dierdorff and Ellington, 2008).
The above literature review reveals the relationship between long hours of work, heavy
work load, person-job fit; job stressors significantly affect the marital happiness among
employees. The review also shows that organization policies and support can improve
significantly marital happiness and in turn improve the work efficiency, physical and
psychological well being of the employees. The earlier researches also show that employees
who are high on marital role commitment were associated with increased enhancement in
work efficiency. Thus, these researches provide a potential assert to the present investigation
to understand the relationship between the work environment and marital happiness.
Thus the current study is interested in examining the relationship between work
environment, marital satisfaction and profession (not much of research has been done in
particular with any profession). Based on this, the following hypotheses are framed:
1. There will be a significant relationship between work environment and marital

happiness. A better work environment leads to higher marital happiness.
2. Software professionals will experience significantly lesser marital happiness compared
to non-software professionals.
3. Work environment stress will be significantly higher among software professionals
compared to non-software professionals.
4. There will be a significant relationship between professional choice and marital
happiness.
METHODOLOGY
Design
The design employed by this study was a survey design. The sample obtained was a random
sample, controlled for marital status and work status. The independent variable is
professional choice (i.e. software professionals and non-software professionals), the
dependent variables are marital satisfaction and work environment.
Participants
The participants of this study were 130 married adults from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and
Johor Bahru. The sample consisted of 65 software professionals and 65 non-software
professionals (mostly academicians and some people at administrative level jobs). Of this
sample, there were 73 (56.2%) male, 57 (43.8%) female participants. The age range was
from 25-55 years old, with a mean age of 38.49 years. In this sample, there were 9 (6.9%)
Malays, 85 (65.4%) Chinese, 33 (25.4%) Indian participants and 3 (23%) participants were
from other races. In their educational standards, this sample had 61 (46.9%) diploma holders
and 69 (53.1%) degree holders.
Measurement Instruments
The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS)
The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) was designed by Spanier (1976) to assess the quality
of marriage or similar dyads. The scale consists of 32 self administrated items, where the
participants rate themselves. The DAS has three different types of rating scales: items 1-15
the subjects rate on a 0-5 point scale, items 16-22 the subjects rate on a 1-6 point scale, item
23 & 24 the subjects rate on a 0-4 point scale, items 25 – 28 the subjects rate on a 1-5 point
scale, items 29 & 30 the response is recorded as “Yes” or “No”, item 31 is rated on 0-6
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point scale and item 32 is rated on a 0-5 point scale. The total sum of all items ranges from 0
– 151 and can be used as a general measure of satisfaction and intimate relationship. Higher
scores reflect a better marital satisfaction and relationship while lower scores indicate poor
marital satisfaction and relationship. The scale has an impressive internal consistency with a
reliability of 0.96. The scale has known group validity by discriminating between married
and divorced couples on each item and the instrument also has evidence of concurrent
validity, correlating with the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale.
The Employee Survey
The employee survey was adopted from the scale given by Yandrick(1996), to assess the
perception of the employees work environment, which focuses on the management structure
and functions, compensation, co-workers support, hours spent, stress, and career growth.
This research has adopted 28 items from the original 64 items. The scale can be self
administered where the participants rate themselves on a three point scale of high, moderate,
or low. The total score can be used as a general measure of employee’s satisfaction towards
work environment. Higher scores indicate higher dissatisfaction towards work environment.
The reliability of the scale for this study is found to be 0.76. This is a widely used scale to
understand the perception of the work environment by the employee.
Profession
The profession is categorized into two categories: software professionals and non-software
professionals (Academicians and Administrative).
Procedure
The survey was conducted within the areas of Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, and Johor Bahru.
Participants were required to complete a consent form to show that they agree to take part in
the research study as subjects. The data collection was carried out by a team of psychology
students and a chief investigator from Sunway University College. The participants were
given one week to complete the questionnaire which consists of demographic questions and
assessment scales with written instructions.
RESULTS
The analysis indicated that there was a significant negative relationship between work
environment and marital happiness (r = -.181, p<.05). This means that a person with high
work environment stress is more likely to have lower marital happiness. Thus the first
hypothesis “There will be a significant relationship between work environment and marital
happiness. A better work environment leads to higher marital happiness” was supported (see
Table 1).
The analysis also indicated that there is a significant relationship between profession
and marital happiness (r = .330, p< .01). This means that there is a significant relationship
between the person’s profession and marital happiness. Thus the fourth hypothesis “There
will be a significant relationship between profession and marital happiness” was supported
(see Table 2).
Table 1. The Correlation Depicting the Relationship between Marital Happiness and
Work Environment Stress
Work Environment stress -.181*
Marital Happiness
Note
*p < .05
Table 2. The Correlation Depicting the Relationship between Marital Happiness and
Profession
Profession .330**
Marital Happiness
Note
**p < .01
An independent sample t-test was used to investigate the marital happiness and
work environment among software and non-software professionals. The descriptive analysis
between marital happiness and the two groups of professions indicated that the software
professionals had a significant lower marital happiness compared to non-software
professionals (t (128) = -3.962, p< .01). Thus the second hypothesis “Software professionals
will experience significantly lesser marital happiness compared to non-software
professionals” was supported (see Table 3).The descriptive analysis between work
environment and the two groups of professions indicted that the software professionals had a
significant higher work environment stress compared to non-software professionals (t (128)
= 3.779, p<. 01). Thus the third hypothesis “Work stress will be significantly higher among
software professionals compared to non-software professionals” was supported (see Table
4).
Table 3. Descriptive Statistics for Marital Happiness among Software and Non-
software Professionals
PROFESSION M SD t
Marital Happiness Software professionals 97.05 14.306
-3.962**
Non software professionals 109.20 20.177
Note
**p < .01
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Table 4. Descriptive Statistics for Work Environment Stress among Software and Non-
software Professionals.
PROFESSION M SD t
Work Environment Software professionals 66.40 9.003
stress 3.779**
Non software
Professionals 60.97 7.293
Note
**p < .01
DISCUSSION
The purpose of the current study is to look at the effects of work environment stress on the
marital happiness of professionals. This study aims at finding out whether the software
professionals experience more work environment stress leading to low marital satisfaction
compared to non-software professionals (academicians and administrative).
To understand the effect of work environment stress on marital happiness let us analyse
the first hypotheses “There will be a significant relationship between work environment
stress and marital happiness. “When the work environment stress is lower, marital happiness
is higher”. The results indicate a significant negative relationship: the more stressed the
work environment is, the more likely the person reports lower on his/her marital happiness.
A work environment which is less stressful for the employee reflects on the employees
higher level of marital happiness. The results of this study is supported by previous
researches: Mikkelsen and Burke (2004) examined (a) potential predictors of work–family
conflict and marital partner concerns and (b) consequences of these 2 work–family measures
on indicators of psychological and physical well-being and found that job demands and
burnout components (exhaustion, cynicism) emerged as strong predictors of the 2 work–
family measures; another research by Schulz et al. (2004) found in their study more
negatively arousing workdays were linked with angrier marital behavior for women and less
angry and more withdrawn behavior for men, thus affecting their interaction and marital
happiness. This indicates the significance of work environment stress on marital happiness.
When employees are stressed or strained at their work place, their energy levels are drained
and it becomes difficult for them to spend quality time to meet the demands of marital
expectations. Organisational policies, work load distribution and social support play an
important role in better work environment which needs to improve in order to improve the
marital happiness.
Let’s see the relationship between profession and marital happiness on the analysis of
the hypothesis “There will be a significant relationship between profession and marital
happiness.” The results of the study indicate that there is a significant relationship between
these two variables, profession and marital happiness. This result was supported by the
study conducted by Dierdorff and Ellington (2008) which indicates that significant variance
in work–family conflict is attributable to the occupation in which someone works. Ilies et
al. (2007) who conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the perceptions of work load
over work-family conflict showed that there is a significant relationship between perception
of workload and work-family conflict even when the work time is controlled. The result also
indicates the software professionals experience more work environment stress and lower
marital happiness than non-software professionals. The results were also supported
indirectly by other numerous studies and research studies like Valcour (2007) who
investigated the relationships of work hours, job complexity, and control over work time to
satisfaction with work-family balance among 570 call center employees. The study showed
that workers with low control over work time experienced a decline in work-family balance
satisfaction, while workers with high control over work time did not. The result of the
current study concurs with the earlier studies that have been discussed above showing that
work environment relates significantly to marital satisfaction. When employees do not get
quality time to spend with their spouse due to work demands, work load and have no control
over time, marital conflict would emerge as work-family conflict and lead to poor marital
happiness. The study also examines how professional differences can also contribute to
marital happiness. The two professions examined in this research are software professionals
and academicians. Though samples from both the groups are dual careers because of their
differences in work environment, work demands contributes to their difference in their
marital happiness.
Thus, the findings of the current study examine the present day situation work
hassles, and profession in relation to marital happiness. The result of the study also indicates
the crucial role work environment stress plays on the individual’s marital life. Poor work
environment such as high job demands, role ambiguity, role conflict, burnouts makes an
employee exhausted, frustrated, angrier, and leading to a negative disposition in their marital
interactions causing conflict and unhappiness. The most interesting finding of this research
is that a person’s professional membership is related to the marital happiness. The work
structures created by occupations partly constrain how individuals manage boundaries
between work and family roles (Kossek, Lautsch, & Eaton, 2005; Olson-Buchanan &
Boswell, 2006). The profession in which an employee belongs to actually helps us to
identify their attitudes, beliefs, social interactions and the work – family conflict. Thus this
research has provided an additional input in the arena of professional membership and its
relationship with marital happiness. We will further analyse some of the main strengths,
limitations, and future implications of this study.
Strengths and Limitations
One strength of this study is that it has a good sample size of 130, with equal distribution of
software and non-software professionals, with a marital life age of at least two years. To the
knowledge of the researcher, only minimal research has been done in this area with a
Malaysian sample size. The limitations to this study are: the samples are not race
representative and the sample size is not large enough to be generalised to the whole
population of the country as it has been collected from a few states in Malaysia. Thus, future
studies can expand the data collection to represent the population of the nation.
Implications
This research study focuses on a fast growing industry in the country which is the software
industry. A few studies were only able to find a link between professional choices with
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marital happiness. The study suggests that work family conflict can affect the employees
general work efficiency and marital happiness due to the imbalance caused by work
demands.
The results of this study suggest that work environment play a very crucial role in the
marital happiness. Furthermore, work environment and family environment are secluded
groups and there is a strong interaction between these two environments. Work environment
is part of the exosystem of our socialization process; to lead a successful marital and career
life, individuals and their environments need to be matched at several levels. At the
organizational level, if the work environment and organizational support is improved by
introducing flexible time schedules and child care programs, it may result in productive and
effective employees and a reduction in stress in particular types of jobs where the work
demands are quite high.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study supported all four of the hypotheses: (1) There is a significant
relationship between work environment and marital happiness, (2) Software professionals
experience significantly lesser marital happiness compared to non software professionals,
(3) Work stress is significantly higher among software professionals compared to non
software professionals, (4) There is a significant relationship between profession and marital
happiness. The evidence here strongly suggest that software organisations begin developing
strategies to combat the work environment stressors for the employees to manage work-
family conflict and family-work conflict, as this might affect the health and well being of
the employees. The study supports industrial and organisational psychologists to develop
training programs for employees as well as for their families, to strike a balance between
work efficiency and marital happiness.
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SUNWAY ACADEMIC JOURNAL

KDN No. PP 14193/07/2011(028656)

Volume 7 ISSN 1823-500X 2010

A Computing Curriculum Wiki: Analysis and Modelling Using the MAS-CommonKADS 1

Parental Involvement: Effect on Satisfaction of Parent-Child Relationship 48

The Impact of Neighborhood Types on Residential Property Prices 77

A COMPUTING CURRICULUM WIKI: ANALYSIS AND

Keywords: computing ontology, curriculum wiki, agent, MAS-CommonKADS

Curriculum development, maintenance and management are time-consuming and labour-

An Ontology facilitates the sharing of knowledge. It is a specification of a representational

Figure 1. “Testing” Concept Reveals All Related Concepts.

Regression Testing 0 Usability Testing

Testing Across Quality Reliability Testing and Fault- Tolerance 5

Web Usability and Testing Techniques for Web 0

Testing Tools 0 User Interface Testing and Evaluation 4

Unit Testing 0 Integration Testing

MAIN Systems Development System Verification and

Problem Analysis and V and V Terminology and

User Interface Testing and Evaluation

Figure 3. Hand-drawn Graphical Representation of the “Testing” Concept.

Ontologies and Agents

The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) provides an ontology-based

The scheme proposed by Cassel et al. (2008a)

Figure 4. Computing Ontology Development Scheme.

• Task modelling - A top-down approach is used to decompose tasks. In the Curriculum

Table 1. Curriculum Wiki Agents

the chances of re-

Four user requests were identified:

Phase 2: Agent Modelling

Name of Agent Role Type Services

Phase 3: Coordination Modelling - Event Flow Diagram

Phase 4 : Expertise Modelling

Agent Goals Knowledge Needed

Manager - Display results of user - User request able to forward

Table 3. UR#3: Request for Course Exemption.

Phase 2: Agent Modelling

Name of Agent Role Type Services

Retriever Search possible Computing - Perform matching.

Phase 4 : Expertise Modelling

Agent Goals Knowledge Needed

Manager - Display results - User request (Keyword)

Table 4. UR#4: Request for Change in Course Syllabus.

Phase 2: Agent Modelling

Name of Agent Role Type Services

Phase 4 : Expertise Modelling

Benefits of the MAS-CommonKADS AOM Models

CommonKADS (1995). What is CommonKADS? Retrieved from http://www.commonkads.uva.nl/

Devedžić, V. (2002). Understanding ontological engineering. Communications of the ACM, 45(4ve),

Gruber, T. (1993). A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowledge

BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS IN DOGS: THE RELATIONSHIP

WONG POH WAN

CHEONG SAU KUAN

Key words: dog, causal attributions, ineffective discipline, behaviour problems

Causal Attributions and Reported Behaviour Problems

Causal Attributions and Ineffective Discipline

Ineffective Discipline and Reported Behaviour Problems

Ineffective Discipline as a Mediating Variable between Causal Attributions and

As described above, causal attributions of behaviour may be associated with behaviour

Figure 1. Causal Attributions are Related to Reported Behaviour Problems through

Causal Attributions Reported Behaviour Problems

In this case, ineffective discipline functions as a mediating variable. According to Baron

attributions and ineffective discipline? Lastly, is ineffective discipline a mediator between

Table 1. Demographic Information of Participants