Drug abuse is considered a serious social problem, especially among youth. Those who successfully survive such behaviors, especially in high-risk locations, must have underlying factors worth learning. This research focuses on youth who can avoid using and abusing drugs in high-risk areas. The main objectives are to identify protective factors (PF) that successfully protect youth in high-risk locations and to examine the presence of risk factors (RF) in that particular community. Data were collected through ten focus group discussions (FGD) with youth participants who lived within identified hot spot high-risk areas of drug abuse. Each group contains five participants, which makes up a total of fifty youth participants. The FGDs were audio-recorded, followed by the transcribing process and the thematic data analysis. The finding shows that themes for protective and risk factors are divided into internal and external factors. Internal protective factors are represented mostly by religious knowledge and practice, followed by self-assertiveness. External protective factors are denoted by positive family influences, positive peer influence, and knowledge of drug abuse. On the other hand, internal risk factors epitomize the feeling of curiosity, lack of religious knowledge and practice to release pressure and stress, lack of effective coping skills, and seeking fun. External risk factors embody negative peer influence, lack of parenting skills, negative family influence, and negative neighborhood environment and occupation.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between academic achievement and perceived stress amongst undergraduate students during Covid-19 pandemic. Two variables were involved namely academic achievement and perceived stress. This study involved descriptive and inferential statistics analysis. The study samples involved final year students in a Malaysian public university from 5 different programs of studies. 150 respondents were chosen based on a simple random technique from 250 population amongst undergraduate students. The students are identified as respondents that stay in campus for a period of 3 months during Movement Control Order (MCO). Questionnaires of Academic Motivation Scale (AMS-C28) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) by Vallerand (1992) were used with Cronbach alpha 0.85. The results showed that both genders affected the high level of academic motivation and low level of perceived stress. While based on genders there was no significant difference between academic motivation and perceived stress during movement control order amongst the students. The relationship between academic motivation and perception was also no significantly correlated during faced with these situations. In further research, researchers suggested to obtain a larger sample and involving diversity of programs from Faculties to gain a robust data and this may contribute to a better finding in the future.

Marriage education is a form of dissemination of information designed to help individual and couples to achieve happiness and success in marriage. Nevertheless, marriage education is not just a pre-marital course, but it is a knowledge and skills needed to have either at the beginning of marriage and it continued along marriage lasted. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the views of experts and public about marriage education in Malaysia. The study collected data through structured interviews with 12 samples, 3 public and 9 experts consisting lecturers, registered counselors and religious officers. Data were managed in NVivo 8 using thematic analysis approach. Outcomes from the interview obtained two main themes 1) understanding of marriage education and 2) necessity of marriage education.

Kesedaran mangsa buli memahami maksud buli, mengapa diri mereka dibuli, dan kepentingan peningkatan efikasi kendiri didapati membantu mangsa buli menghadapi fenomena buli. Kajian eksperimen yang mengaplikasikan kaunseling kelompok terapi tingkah laku kognitif terhadap pelajar mangsa buli yang telah dijalankan ini telah menunjukkan kesan positif. Data kualitatif dari hasil temu bual pra dan pasca, yang menggunakan soal selidik semi struktur, telah memperlihatkan peningkatan tahap pengetahuan mengenai buli dan sebab diri mangsa dibuli. Bagi mengukur efikasi kendiri, skala The Peer Aggression Coping Self Efficacy Scale (PACSES) telah diterjemah dan digunakan pada peringkat pra dan pasca temu bual. Kajian mendapati terdapat peningkatan efikasi kendiri dalam kalangan responden yang telah mengikuti kaunseling kelompok tingkahlaku kognitif. Kajian ini telah menunjukkan penggunaan terapi tingkah laku kognitif yang memfokuskan kepada bidang pengetahuan tentang buli, memahami sebab diri dibuli dan efikasi kendiri oleh kaunselor sekolah untuk membantu mangsa buli, dan dapat memperkasakan diri mangsa buli dalam menghadapi situasi buli.

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk membangunkan alat ukur trait orientasi seksual kecelaruan jantina Gay dan Lesbian. Model asas alat ukur ini adalah berdasarkan 7 Dimensi Orientasi Seksual Fritz Klein (1993). Kajian ini menggunakan rekabentuk kaedah kualitatif iaitu gabungan kajian kes dan analisis dokumen. Berdasarkan kajian kes, 8 orang responden Gay dan Lesbian dipilih secara bertujuan. Responden Gay dan Lesbian ditemubual menggunakan teknik temubual semi struktur. Manakala analisis dokumen pula menggunakan literature lepas, jurnal, artikel, dokumen bertulis dan soal selidik Sexual Deviant Behavior. Dapatan temubual membentuk tema-tema dan digabungkan dengan dapatan analisis dokumen untuk membentuk alat ukur. Seterusnya alat ukur dibangunkan mengikut prosedur yang standard (Brown, 1983). Kesahan konstruk alat ukur diperoleh daripada 2 orang pakar bidang kaunseling untuk membentuk Alat Ukur Orientasi Seks Gay Roslee (ISGR) dan Alat Ukur Orientasi Seks Lesbian Roslee (ISLR). Trait inventori ISGR mengandungi 6 subkonstruk iaitu Instinct, Expression, Nurture, Gay Behaviour, Experience Sexual Deviant Behaviour dan Spiritual. Manakala trait ISLR mengandungi 5 subkonstruk iaitu Instinct, Nurture, Gay Behaviour, Experience Sexual Deviant Behaviour dan Spiritual. Ujian rintis alatukur ISGR mempunyai nilai kebolehpercayaan 0.67 manakala ISLR mempunyai nilai kebolehpercayaan 0.70. Mengikut Kerlinger (1979) dan Mohd Majid (1990) nilai kebolehpercayaan alpha Cronbach melebihi 0.6 adalah baik dan boleh diterima.

Counseling is a profession that is concerned with all aspects of development for the individual client and this is synonymous with the philosophy of wellness. Even though the wellness emphasis is not well understood and is not systematically taught or applied due to ongoing debates among Western scholars about this concept and despite confusion with the usage of various terms to refer to wellness, the concept of wellness has the potential to be integrated with the naqli and aqli knowledge in counseling. In Islam, this concept has long been discussed. It is hoped that by comparing the Islamic concept of welness to the Western perspective would help increase the understanding of this concept and highlight its application in counseling as an example of the integration of revealed knowledge and rational science. This paper will discuss briefly the concept of wellness from the perspective of Islam and the West, as well as looking at some common grounds and differences between the two views. Both views agree that wellness is a lifelong process that is holistic, comprising of multiple dimensions. However, the Islamic view of this concept is broader and complements the existing view on wellness. The implication of this study to the field of counseling includes refocusing counseling to the developmental aspect of an individual that comprised of not only remediation but also prevention.

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

A study on the effectiveness of a spirituality-based drug and substance abuse prevention module was carried out by researchers on youth living in a high-risk area in the north of Peninsular Malaysia. The study was done to investigate the effectiveness of the spiritual drug abuse prevention module based on (1) self-assertiveness, (2) spirituality, and (3) their belief concerning substance and drug abuse. The study sample was divided into an experimental and control group for the pre and post stages. This study used a quasi-experimental design involving two youth groups from different zones, each consisting of 33 people (experimental and control groups). A psychoeducational intervention of seven meeting sessions was carried out on the experimental group, while the control group was not given any intervention. The results of the pre-and post-test comparison showed that there was a significant increase in the mean value of self-assertiveness (mean value from pre-test 99.45 to 106.42 post-test), spirituality (mean value from pre-test 172.24 to 188.12 post-test) and beliefs about drug abuse (mean value from pre-test 28.91 to 41.48 post-test) for the experimental group that went through the intervention given by the trained facilitator using this spirituality module. The mean results of the control group showed no mean increase for the three variables studied. In conclusion, the spiritual module for preventing drug abuse can help the youth from being involved in substance and drug abuse and enjoy a more positive life.

The transition that occurs in the field of education is common and can be experienced by each individual involved in the learning process. Transition shows that an individual has a good and smooth development process. As part of this adaptation, there are a few standard six students who have concerns about some issues such as bullying and anxiety. Ability to develop new relationship with peers help them to cope this transition. This study aims to explore their narrative of mental readiness to face the transition in education among primary students to secondary school. This study employed a qualitative research design with triangulating interview, discussion, and observation methods. There were four themes in this study, 1) to explore the role of the family on students, 2) to understand students' expectations of the transition process, 3) to recognize the level of students' knowledge about the types of secondary schools and finally, to investigate students' skills in building sentences and making simple sentences. The discussion made can make the respondents more prepared and have the goal of entering a school with high grades.

The purpose of this study was to explore Malay Muslim adults in Malaysia, their understanding on the concept of wellness. Using a qualitative design, data were collected through the use of semistructured interviews with fourteen Malay Muslim adults between the ages of 21 to 60. Analysis of data from these interviews utilized the constant-comparative method. The findings showed that from the perspective of the participants as a whole, wellness is maintaining a good relationship with self, Allah and others. Aspects of wellness include physical, food and nutrition, psychological, financial, occupational, spiritual, social, environmental, and cultural domains. There was similarity in the view of the nature of wellness as multidimensional and encompassing the whole person. The findings highlight that the participants’ conceptualization of wellness relates to the Malay Muslims’ cultural background. This cultural uniqueness should be translated into a wellness-based counseling strategy for this specific ethnic group. This study also shows the importance of considering multicultural factors in understanding and dealing with a client. Recommendations and limitations are also discussed