This study was conducted to examine the relationship between smartphone addiction, sleep quality, and academic performance. The study presented quantitative research on 323 students in a public university in Sabah to explore the relationship between smartphone addiction, sleep quality, and academic performance. A simple random sampling was used in the study. The Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version (SAS-SV) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used in this study. SPSS was used as a tool of analysis for descriptive and inferential analysis. Pearson correlation was involved to test the hypothesis of the study. The result indicated that the greater the smartphone addiction, the lower the academic performance of university students. The finding also proved that students with poor sleep quality might exhibit low academic performance. Smartphone addiction was found to be associated with sleep quality where overusing smartphones was related to poor sleep quality in university students. On this basis, the problem of smartphone addiction and sleep quality should be tackled in order to improve the academic performance of university students and their overall health.

Juvenile delinquency is always seen as a public health problem which needs intervention at various levels. Identifying which factors may lead juveniles to delinquency is a long-standing question among criminologists. This remains the case in Malaysia. There are studies that have explored the impact of problem-solving skills, low socioeconomic status, and gender differences in predicting the delinquent behavior of youth in Malaysia. However, very few studies have aimed to find an in-depth understanding of the effects of family roles and peer pressure on delinquency in Malaysia. The present qualitative research was designed to fill this gap in the literature. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 young male prisoners (juvenile delinquents) in Malaysia to explore the influences of family life and peer pressure on delinquency. The current study showed that parental un-involvement, parent separation, peer pressure, criminal gang membership, and parents’ involvement in crime were the important factors for involvement in delinquency. The findings revealed the importance of guidance and counseling for parents and adolescents, to help them cope with life challenges and to build their social and emotional skills, as well as the necessity of appointing school psychologists and public health experts to help the youths become valuable individuals.

Despite the relentless effort by the local government, educational institutions and the social community, antisocial behaviors are still rampant in society, with 65% of those involved in antisocial behavior being youth. The main objective of this study was to investigate the mediation effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship between parenting style and antisocial behaviors among the youth in Malaysia. Parenting style was separated into three categories: permissive, authoritarian and authoritative. Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage and understand one own’s emotions as well as others’ emotions. Besides the parent–child relationship, emotional intelligence also plays an important role in the relationship between youth and antisocial behaviors, as multiple studies have found that youth with higher emotional intelligence are less likely to engage with antisocial behavior. A total of 400 young individuals (mean age 22.70 years) participated in this quantitative study by answering the Parental Authority Questionnaire; in addition, the Subtypes of Antisocial Behavior Questionnaire and the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale were employed. Pearson’s correlation coefficients, simple linear regression analysis, and covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) were used to analyze the data. The results indicate a negative association between permissive and authoritative parenting styles and antisocial behavior among youth, while authoritarian parenting displays a positive association with antisocial behavior. The results show that emotional intelligence acts as a significant full mediator of the relationship between the permissive parenting style and antisocial behavior in Malaysia. Thus, this study affirms the importance of instilling emotional intelligence in the youth and providing positive social sustainability development intervention programs that aim to reduce antisocial behaviors among the youth, especially for those with permissive parents.

This study aims to find out about the transformational leadership of Islamic boarding schools as role models in contemporary Islamic educational institutions dan and knowing the characteristics of Islamic boarding school transformational leadership. This research method is library research. Library research is research in which the data or materials needed to complete research come from the library in books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, journals, magazines and so on. The results of this study indicate that the transformational leadership model of pesantren as a role model for contemporary Islamic educational institutions must have four dimensions: charismatic leadership, a leader who can make his followers admire, respect, and trust him. Inspirational motivation leadership, leaders who can articulate clear expectations from all members. Intellectual stimulation leadership is a leader who can develop new ideas from his subordinates. And individualized consideration leadership is a leader who always listens to the aspirations and inputs of others. This research provides practical implications and policy recommendations for Islamic boarding schools and other Islamic educational institutions that wish to adopt transformational leadership strategies. With a better understanding of the role of transformational leadership in Islamic boarding schools, it is hoped that Islamic boarding schools can continue to develop as models of contemporary Islamic education that are relevant and competitive in today's digital era

Miskawayh (d.1030), through his famous book on ethics, Tahdhib al-Akhlaq (The Refinement of Character), has separated ethics from other disciplines, offering a very thorough analytical system of Islamic ethics. His Tahdhib al-Akhlaq was thus occupying a prominent place in this particular branch of Islamic ethical literature. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that most of the later works that deal with this subject such as those by al-Ghazali, al-Tusi and al-Dawwani, use it as their main authority and some of them are even based on it. Thus, the objective of this qualitative study, which applies conceptual content analysis method, is to make a critical analysis of such an influential works on ethics in Islam with the purpose of elucidating its views concerning happiness, as well as the ways by which man may achieve a noble state of character, so as to attain such a great goal. To this end, the present study confines itself to discussing the concept of happiness and to finding out the answer to those particular questions regarding its nature such are, what is meant by happiness, or what does happiness consist of? Why is happiness the end to be achieved by man and for which sake he was created? Is happiness attainable in this life or the next? Who is the happy man? and so forth. The result of this study shows that the thought of Aristotle and other philosophers enable Miskawayh to philosophise about moral happiness and how Islamic faiths brings about the development of that legacy.

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between academic stress and life satisfaction among university students in Sabah, Malaysia. A total of 400 students were selected as respondents and data were collected using questionnaires. Academic stress was measured using the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (PAS), which has four subscales: i) Performance stress; ii) Workload perception of workload and examinations; iii) Academic self-perception; and iv) Time constraints. Meanwhile, the Satisfaction with Life Scale was used to study student’s life satisfaction. The data obtained were analyzed using Pearson correlation and t-test. The results showed that performance stress is negatively associated with life satisfaction, while academic self-perception is positively associated with life satisfaction. The result also showed that perception of workload and examinations and time constraints not associated with life satisfaction. All in all, academic self-perception and performance stress have an association with life satisfaction.