Muhammad Aqeel and Tasnim Rehna
The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence and association among school refusal behavior, self-esteem, parental school involvement and aggression in punctual and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence and association among school refusal behavior, self-esteem, parental school involvement and aggression in punctual and truant school-going adolescents.
Design/methodology/approach
A purposive sampling technique and cross-sectional design were used in the current study. Participants comprised three heterogeneous sub-groups: school truant students, park truant students and punctual students.
Findings
This study’s findings indicated that father and mother’s school involvement was related to more elevated level of self-esteem for school truant students. Results also indicated that male truant students had more significant probability to school refusal behavior and physical aggression as compared to female truant students. Moreover, results revealed that physical aggression fully mediated among mother’s school involvement, academic self and school refusal behavior in punctual students and school truant students.
Originality/value
There is more need to develop indigenous school-based preventions and interventions aimed at decreasing school truancy in Pakistani context by tackling the predisposing vulnerable factors and supporting and encouraging the protective family and internal factors.
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Aneesa Azhar, Jaffar Abbas, Zhang Wenhong, Tanvir Akhtar and Muhammad Aqeel
The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of marital status between infidelity and development of stress, anxiety and depression. Additionally, to investigate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of marital status between infidelity and development of stress, anxiety and depression. Additionally, to investigate the relationship among infidelity, stress, anxiety and depression among married couples and divorced individual.
Design/methodology/approach
A purposive sampling technique was used based on cross-sectional design. In total, 200 participants (married couples, n=100; divorced individuals, n=100) were incorporated from different NGO’s and welfare organizations of Rawalpindi, and Islamabad, Pakistan. Age ranged from 20 to 60 years. Two scales were used to measure the infidelity, stress, anxiety and depression in married couples and divorced couples.
Findings
The result revealed that emotional infidelity was positively significant correlated with stress (r=0.39, p=0.001), anxiety (r=0.40, p=0.001) and depression (r=0.35, p=0.001) for married couples. The result also displayed that sexual infidelity was positively significant correlated with stress (r=0.39, p=0.001), anxiety (r=0.39, p=0.001) and depression (r=0.34, p=0.001) for married couples. The result further elaborated that emotional infidelity and sexual infidelities were positively non-significant correlated with stress, anxiety and depression for divorced individuals. The analysis results revealed that marital status was moderator between infidelity and development of stress, anxiety and depression.
Research limitations/implications
This paper consisted of sample from three basic cities of Pakistan; thus, this paper finding may not be applied on whole population. Consequently, explanatory, exploratory and descriptive studies would be useful to enlighten the infidelity’s mechanism in prolongation of psychological distress across married couples and divorced individual in detail. Local tools to measure gender-related issues would be helpful in prospect while it combine cultural aspects as well.
Social implications
This study would be helpful in clinical settings to raise the awareness to effectively deal with their children.
Originality/value
The study recommended that those divorced individuals who had experienced either sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity were more likely to develop psychological problems as compared to married couples. This study would be helpful in clinical settings to raise the awareness to effectively deal with their children.
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Beenish Shahzad, Muhammad Aqeel, Hifza Naseer, Muhammad Abdullah Khan, Nimra Fawad and Amna Tahreem
Ostracism is being socially ignored or excluded by others. Ostracism leads to serious psychological distress and health issues in the young adults being ostracized. However, there…
Abstract
Purpose
Ostracism is being socially ignored or excluded by others. Ostracism leads to serious psychological distress and health issues in the young adults being ostracized. However, there are no psychometrically designed instruments to measure this phenomenon in young adults. This study aims to develop a scale that measures ostracism efficiently and establishes the scale’s psychometric properties.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design used for the study is “a mixed-method study using non-experimental research with an exploratory sequential approach and instrument development design.” For the formation of the item pool, theoretical evidence was collected and focus group discussions were conducted. Afterward, content validity was established with the help of subject matter experts, followed by Velicer’s minimum average partial method and maximum likelihood factor analysis to form the instrument’s factorial structure.
Findings
Velicer’s minimum average partial method and maximum likelihood factor analysis made two factors as follows: ostracism experience and psychological effect. The instrument developed has a high value of alpha reliability i.e. a = 0.97 and a = 0.96, a = 0.92 for the subscales, respectively.
Research limitations/implications
The sample used for the research was enough to run the analysis, but future studies can go for a more extensive and more diverse sample. The sample was based solely on university students. The current research focused only on the target of the phenomenon, and the whole research process was conducted online because of the Covid-19 pandemic going on. The scale developed can be used in several settings to find out if the individual is being ostracized or not.
Practical implications
The scale’s most important implication is in the colleges and universities where young adults are found and face this problem daily. Likewise, psychologists can also use it in clinical settings. The other important implication of this scale is that it is opening a route to future research as different variables can be studied in ostracism such as depression, physical health and anxiety.
Social implications
Ostracism is a hidden evil in societies that is not usually talked about. When people are not given equal importance in groups or settings, it leads to serious psychological issues in those individuals. This scale will in the identification of the problem that will lead to a proper solution to this evil.
Originality/value
This work is original and not copied from anywhere. The research was conducted with the sole purpose of developing a scale on the ostracism experiences in young adults. The data is collected in the form of online surveys. The current scale is an attempt at developing a more reliable and valid scale that can be used in social settings.
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Rowaida Yawar, Muhammad Aqeel, Maryam Rafiq, Saher Navid, Nabiha Taufiq, Areesha Touqir and Moazma Imran
Fear of rejection is a feeling experienced by every human, which influences everyday life. It impacts an individual’s physical and mental health. But still there is no valid and…
Abstract
Purpose
Fear of rejection is a feeling experienced by every human, which influences everyday life. It impacts an individual’s physical and mental health. But still there is no valid and reliable measure to assess prevalence of fear of rejection because of interpersonal relationships and social factors. This paper aims to serve the purpose of the establishment of psychometric properties of a scale that measures the fear of rejection.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was gathered from focus groups to establish item pool and construct the instrument. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the data collected by administering fear of rejection scale (FRS) and it uncovered the structure of the developed scale. Principal component analysis method was conducted by using direct oblimin rotation.
Findings
A two-factor structure, which includes interpersonal relationships and social factors, was obtained as a result of EFA. The internal consistency of the scale is highly acceptable with a = 0.93, which indicated that the scale is highly reliable. High reliability of subscales was attained as a = 0.90 and 0.86, respectively.
Originality/value
This research paper is original, which aims to assess the fear of rejection in terms of social and interpersonal rejection. The data collected is valid and authentic. The FRS is constructed with highly reliable results and is a psychometrically sound instrument.
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Jaffar Abbas, Muhammad Aqeel, Zhang Wenhong, Jaffar Aman and Farough Zahra
The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of the demographic variables in emotional intelligence, homesickness and the development of mood swings in university…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of the demographic variables in emotional intelligence, homesickness and the development of mood swings in university students. Additionally, the paper investigates the relationship among emotional intelligence, homesickness and mood swings in university students.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive sampling technique was employed based on a cross-sectional design. The sample comprised 304 university students (male students, n=210, female students, n=94). Three scales were used to measure the homesickness, emotional intelligence and positive and negative mood swings in university students.
Findings
The results revealed that homesickness was positively and significantly correlated with mood swings (r=0.34, p<0.001) and negative mood swings (r=0.49, p<0.001). The result also displayed that emotional intelligence was correlated with homesickness (r=−0.15, p<0.05), positive mood swings (r=0.33, p<0.05) and negative mood swings (r=−0.24, p<0.05). The results of the analysis revealed that demographic variables such as age and gender were the moderator between homesickness and development of mood swings. The results also revealed that demographic variable such as gender was the moderator between emotional intelligence and mood swings. This study recommended that those younger students who had experienced homesickness were more likely to develop negative mood swings as compared to older students.
Social implications
The study also recommended that those young students who had emotional intelligence were less likely to develop negative mood swings as compared to older students.
Originality/value
The study further recommended that those female students who had experienced homesickness were more likely to develop positive mood swings as compared to male students. Recommendations of the currents study are that university students can benefit equally but female students can benefit more from an intervention addressing homesickness. This study would be helpful in pedagogical and clinical settings to raise the awareness to effectively deal with their children.
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Bushra Naeem, Muhammad Aqeel, Aneela Maqsood, Ishrat Yousaf, Saima Ehsan and Theo Gavrielides
Haseeb Nisar, Muhammad Aqeel and Ammar Ahmad
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the indigenous need to counter self-harm behavior in Pakistan and establish the reliability and validity of scale with translation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the indigenous need to counter self-harm behavior in Pakistan and establish the reliability and validity of scale with translation, adaptation and cross-language validation of the inventory of statements about self-injury (ISAS) for future health studies (Klonsky and Glenn, 2009).
Design/methodology/approach
The present study was a cross-sectional study using a quantitative method. Response items rating is made from three-point Likert-type scales ranging from the 0-not relevant, 1-somewhat relevant or 2-very relevant. ISAS has been comprised of 13 potential functions of deliberate self-harm (DSH) and all subscales have been translated from the English language into the Urdu language with a sample of 30 individuals and further applied on 200 samples of DSH patients for factorial validation. The standard back-translation method was used for translation and adaptation of the scale (Anderson and Brislin, 1976; Brislin, 1976; Hambleton, 1994).
Findings
The overall scale has good internal consistency reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to confirm the factorial validity of ISAS. Results revealed that all the items have confirmed strong factorial validity in the context of Pakistani culture and quite helpful in hospital settings to address this health issue.
Originality/value
Self-harm is considered as a major health issue in the young population of the world and therefore, the investigated scale provides an assessment of DSH and intentions of performing self-injury to achieve a better understanding of such behaviors in DSH patients, which will help further to develop measures to prevent such behavior.
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Kanwar Hamza Shuja, Muhammad Aqeel and Rimsha Sarfaraz
Chronic pain is a global community health and human rights issue. Proper health care is an important necessity for every human being and access for treatment is every human’s…
Abstract
Purpose
Chronic pain is a global community health and human rights issue. Proper health care is an important necessity for every human being and access for treatment is every human’s right. Likewise, it is significant that proper instruments should be administered to assess these clinical issues. It is equally necessary to reassess these tools accordingly to diverse cultures, especially subjective tools to check their validity and cultural specification. The purpose of this study is to adapt and examine the factorial structure of 20 items and three-factor structure, pain anxiety symptoms scale (McCracken and Dhingra, 2002). As literature evidence suggested of a three-factor structure (Cho, 2010).
Design/methodology/approach
Primarily, the scale was translated into Urdu language using the forward-backward method. Afterward, a reliability assessment and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for construct validity, on an osteoporosis patients’ sample (N = 250) was performed. Subsequently, an Obliman method exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on an osteoporosis sample (N = 500) for factor structuring followed by validity and reliability analysis.
Findings
The initial findings demonstrated a high internal consistency of the translated version of the scale (α = 0.85) and an acceptable test-retest reliability (r = 0.69). CFA displayed a high inter-correlation between scale and its subscales. However, CFA suggested a three-factor model. Consequently, EFA proposed a three-factor, 19 item scale, namely, behavioral; cognitive; and physical subscale, which demonstrated high alpha reliability (α.= 0.86). Other results indicated the scale to have a significant predictive and convergent validity for depression and positive and negative affect.
Originality/value
The present study is novel in its approach as the present study not only tried to adapt the original Pain Anxiety Symptom Scale to Pakistani culture but has also checked the factorial structure of the original scale. The results achieved in the process suggested a three-factor structure scale with 19 items in opposition to the original four structured, 20 items scale.
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Muhammad Aqeel, Rafia Komal and Tanvir Akhtar
The purpose of this paper is to inspect the potential mediation pathways among emotional empathy, personality traits and coping strategies in orphan and non-orphan students…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to inspect the potential mediation pathways among emotional empathy, personality traits and coping strategies in orphan and non-orphan students. Additionally, it designed to investigate the association of coping strategies with emotional empathy and personality traits.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive sampling technique and cross-sectional design were employed in current study. The data of 130 adolescents (institutionalized orphans, n= 62; school students, n=68) were included from different high schools and orphanages of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2017. Three instruments, emotional empathy scale (Mehrabian and Epstein, 1972; Shazia, 2004), coping of problem experience (Carver, 1989; Akhtar, 2005), and Eysenck personality questionnaire (Naqvi and Kamal, 2010; Eysenck, 1964; Eysenck and Eysenck, 1994), were employed to measure personality traits, emotional empathy and coping strategies in orphan and non-orphan students.
Findings
Mediation analyses illustrated that personality traits relegated active avoidance coping strategy through emotional empathy in orphan students. On contrary, the study findings demonstrated that neurotic personality promoted positive coping strategy through emotional empathy in non-orphan students.
Research limitations/implications
The methodological limitations of this study are that the sample is of 130 participants that limits the generalizability of its results; furthermore, it was done on only the male orphans students of only one institute. Further research can be done on different orphanages to enhance the generalizability of results. This study included orphan and non-orphan students from the two cities of Pakistan; consequently, its findings may not be generalizable to the whole population. In the future, cross-sectional and experimental researches working with more assorted data could help elucidate the mechanisms by which interpersonal factors affect and stimulate coping strategies in orphans and high school students.
Practical implications
This paper exposes a number of ways for upcoming future studies. This study findings can be employed to enhance knowledge and offer assistance for orphans, on how to identify and get help from coping resources to tackle various problems and how to build new psychological preventions and interventions strategies in the Pakistani society. There still exists a need to find out the effect of emotion, empathy on personality types in relation to different environmental conditions. The findings have implications for pedagogical intervention as such improvements can be initiated in the pedagogical context.
Social implications
This study comprised only orphan and non-orphan students from two twin cities of Pakistan; consequently, its findings may not be applicable to the whole population. In future, cross-sectional and experimental researches with more assorted data will assist clarify the mechanism that interpersonal factors affect and stimulate coping strategies in high school students.
Originality/value
Study findings proposed that coping strategies can be promoted by interpersonal factors such as personality traits and empathy to tackle different orphan’s psychological problem in various negative situation.
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Muhammad Aqeel, Ammar Ahmed and Tanvir Akhtar
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of psychological problems (stress, anxiety, depression) between hearing impairment (HI) and tinnitus in tinnitus…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of psychological problems (stress, anxiety, depression) between hearing impairment (HI) and tinnitus in tinnitus patients. Sample comprised of 110 patients (male, n=70; female, n=40).
Design/methodology/approach
The purposive sampling technique was used based on correlational design. Two scales, tinnitus handicap inventory developed by Newman et al. (1996), and depression, anxiety and stress scale developed by Lovibond and Lovibond (1995), were employed to assess tinnitus, anxiety, stress and depression among tinnitus patients.
Findings
The study revealed that tinnitus was positively significant correlated with depression (r=0.55, p<0.001), anxiety (r=0.63, p<0.001), stress (r=0.54, p<0.001) and hearing loss (r=0.81, p<0.001). The results also revealed that hearing loss was positively significant predictor for tinnitus (β=20.72, p<0.001). Further, it was revealed that tinnitus was positively significant predicted by anxiety (β=2.62, p<0.001), stress (β=2.33, p<0.001) and depression (β=2.71, p<0.001); the interaction between psychological symptoms and hearing loss was negatively significant predictor for stress (β=−0.51, p<0.001), anxiety (β=−0.57, p<0.001) and depression (β=−0.62, p<0.001). Moreover, it was revealed that female tinnitus patients were more predisposed to stress, anxiety and depression as compared to male tinnitus patients. Results also elaborated that those tinnitus patient who had profound HI were less inclined toward psychological problems as compared to those tinnitus patients who had mild to moderate level of HI. This study would be helpful for the clinical setting to tackle the psychological problems of tinnitus patients.
Research limitations/implications
This study consisted on population from urban cities of Pakistan; therefore, the findings cannot be generalized on overall population. In future, descriptive as well as experimental studies will be beneficial to describe the mechanism of tinnitus across gender in detail. Native tool for measuring gender-related problems would be effective in future as it integrates cultural aspects as well.
Originality/value
There is a consensus across researchers that tinnitus is one of the most important biological problem which initiates various other psychological problem (Minen et al., 2014; Vogel et al., 2014). Numerous studies have been conducted to find out the relationship of tinnitus with various psychological and biological factors (Boi et al., 2012; Li et al., 2014; Marciano et al., 2003; McCormack et al., 2015; Møller et al., 2010; Udupi et al., 2013; Zöger et al., 2006).