DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY AND NEGATIVE AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS AMONG MALAY AND

CHINESE ADOLESCENTS IN MALAYSIA

SALIZA BINTI KARIA @ ZAK.ARIA

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF HUMAN SCIENCE IN PSYCHOLOGY

KULLIYY AH OF ISLAMIC REVEALED KNOWLEDGE AND HUMAN SCIENCES

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

APRIL, 1999

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

This study explores depressive symptomatology and various dimensions of negative

automatic thoughts among two groups of adolescents, the Malays and the Chinese in

Malaysia. The objective of the study is to find out whether cultural dictates or ethnic

identity of the subjects influences depression and automatic thoughts. A pilot-study was

conducted to adapt two scales namely, the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale

(RADS) and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) which have been translated

into the Malay language. A sample of 120 subjects within the age range of 16-18 years

was selected. They consisted of 31 male and 25 female Malays, and 37 male and 27

female Chinese. The scales were translated into Malay following the translation and

back-translation procedure. The internal consistency reliability of RADS was 0.74, while

that of ATQ was 0.86. A main study was conducted to examine depressive

symptomatology and automatic thoughts among Malay and Chinese adolescents. The

scales adapted in the pilot-study were used. Three hundred and fifty two subjects,

including 169 Malays and 183 Chinese, from three secondary schools in Kedah

participated in the study. A total of 70 male and 99 female Malays, and 73 male and 99

female Chinese subjects were obtained. The age of the subjects ranged from 16-18 years.

The main result showed that the Malays were significantly more depressed than the

Chinese. Malays also scored higher on negative automatic thoughts although the

difference was not significant. The internal consistency reliability of RADS was 0.79,

while that of ATQ was 0.91. No statistically significant gender differences were found on

both scales.

11

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iii

APPROVAL PAGE

I certify that I have supervised/read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Human Science in Psychology.

~4:dt Syed Ashiq Ali Shah Supervisor

Date: 8 / l/ / / ? 7 ~

Examiner

Date: \ 2. · 4 · \ q '14

This thesis was submitted to the Department of Psychology, Kulliyyah of Islamjc Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences and is accepted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Human Science in Psychology.

/1/ -. ol. '!2_ /.-·?:~················ Syed Ashiq Ali Shah Head Department of Psychology

Date: 8 /ft// J ? j

Abdullah Hassan

Date: I :l ~ (p · Cf C(_

lV

DECLARATION PAGE

I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where

otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references

and a bibliography is appended.

Name: Saliza binti Karia@Zakaria

Date: ... ~/ ?i./ C:,.'J ..

V

© Copyright by Saliza Karia@Zakaria

The International Islamic University Malaysia

To A1y Parents:

Mak and Ayah,

Thank You for Everything!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, my utmost praise and syukur be to Allah S.W.T. for granting me the health, patience, and intellectual endurance to withstand the challenges of completing this thesis.

I wish to extent my heartfelt gratitude to my respected Supervisor, Prof. Dr. Syed Ashiq Ali Shah, for his continuous guidance and support in sustaining my potentials as a student researcher.

My deepest appreciation and respect goes to Prof. Dr. Nizar Alani for reinventing my interest in Statistics, and Prof. Dr. Mahfooz A Ansari for nourishing this interest further.

My warmest thanks go to my Advisor, Prof. Dr. Mustapha Achoui, for his tireless encouragement and motivation.

To all my Professors, lecturers and colleagues, thank you for your invaluable feedback and kind support. ·

Last but not least, I wish to reassert my love and gratitude to my beloved family and friends, for bearing with me during those long months of preparing and writing my thesis, and seeing to its completion in the present form.

For those not mentioned here, thank you for your co-operation. JazakumAllahu Khairan Kathira.

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract..................................................................................... n Abstract (Arabic).......................................................................... 111 Approval Page............................................................................. 1v Declaration... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Acknowledgements........................................................................ v111 List of Tables............................................................................... XI

CHAPTER 1: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Depression and Comorbidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Adolescence and Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Cognitive Theory of Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Automatic Thoughts and Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Ethnicity and Cognitive Processes... . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Gender Differences............................................................. 14 Research Objectives............................................................ 15 Research Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

CHAPTER2:METHODOLOGY PILOT STUDY.................................................................... 18 Method

Sample................................................................... 18 Adaptation of Instruments... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS)......... 19 Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ)... ... ... ... ... 22

Procedure... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Results........................................................................... 24

RADS Item Analysis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 25 Reliability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

ATQ Item Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Reliability... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Discussion... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

MAIN STIJDY... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Method

Sample................................................................... 29 Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Faces Scale..................................................... 30 Procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Results........................................................................... 33

Faces Scale............................................................. 33

ix

RADS.................................................................. 33 ATQ ...... ...... ..................... ............ ............... ... ... 35

Discussion... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION AND RECOMtvffiNDATIONS... ... ... ... .. . ... . 46 Challenges for Prevention... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

REFERENCES............................................................................ 52

APPENDIX I... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

APPENDIX II...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

APPENDLX III .............................................................................. 61

APPENDIX IV... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

X

LIST OF TABLES

. Table No. Page

Pilot Study 01. Mean and Standard Deviation of Male and Female Malay and Chinese

Subjects on RADS 25

02. Mean and Standard Deviation of Male and Female Malay and Chinese Subjects on ATQ 27

Main Study 03. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups

on RADS 34

04. The Mean. Standard Deviation, and t-value for Male and Female Subjects on RADS 34

05. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups onATQ 35

06. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Male and Female Subjects onATQ 36

07. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups on PMDC Sub-scale 36

08. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups on NSNE Sub-scale 37

09. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups on LSE Sub-scale 3 7

10. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups on H Sub-scale 38

11. Descriptive Statistics and Intercorrelations of RADS, A TQ, and ATQ Sub-scales 38

12. Intercorrelations of RADS, ATQ, and ATQ Sub-scales for Malay Group 39

13. Intercorrelations of RADS, ATQ, and ATQ Sub-scales for Chinese Group 39

Xl

CHAPTER 1

A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS

Depression is an affective disorder that affects people in almost all age groups.

Although a majority of previous researches have focused on its prevalence and

implications in adults, there is still a growing interest to study it in relation to other

populations, such as children, adolescents, and the elderly people. The results of some

epidemiological studies in the United States suggest that as many as 5% of children and

between 10% and 20% of adolescents from the general population have experienced a

depressive disorder (Reynolds, 1992, 1994).

Since depression is on increase in the general population, as evidenced in the

literatures, it is important to give due attention to the younger generation. Hence, the

focus of the present study is to tap the manifestations of depressive symptoms among a

group of school-going adolescents. It is also aimed at examining the impact of cultural

and ethnic differences upon the cognitive processes of adolescents, particularly in relation

to their thought. In short, it is assumed that cultural differences play a significant role in

the way a potentially depressed adolescent think and feel.

Depressive affect is common to the general population. We use the word

"depressed" in our daily conversations almost synonymously with the state of being sad,

"blue", or unhappy. However, having a depressed mood is more than being sad. It is an

emotional state that cannot be easily shrugged off and may impair the normal functioning

or activities of a person. Inappropriate management of depressive mood can lead to a

clinical depression, a condition that signifies a serious disorder with many implications.

There are two approaches that have been used to describe clinical depression. The

"idiographic approach" is one in which a person's disturbance is examined in depth in all

its contextual detail to facilitate a detailed understanding of his or her depressive state.

The second approach is known as the "nomothetic approach." In this approach, various

clinical illnesses are examined for features that can be constructed into a range of

classifications and relationships to summarize the different types of problems across

patients. Although this approach appears to be inadequate for an accurate diagnosis, it

forms an integral part in developing consensual formal diagnostic criteria (Kaelber,

Moul, & Farmer, 1995).

The more recent and popularly used formal diagnostic systems are the 10th

revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10; World Health

Organization, 1992), and the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). In both the ICD

and DSM classification systems, affective disorder is described as a syndrome

characterized by a cluster of signs and symptoms. These include depressed mood; loss of

interest in pleasurable activities; disturbances in sleep, appetite, and psychomotor

activity; fatigue; thoughts of worthlessness or guilt; and difficulties in concentrating.

The DSM-IV lists seven separate depressive and manic disorders in the section on

mood disorders, including classifications on various episode and course specifiers. These

are major depression; atypical depression; melancholia; psychotic depression; dysthymic

disorder; seasonal affective disorder; and organic mood disorder or mood disorder due to

a general medical condition. Current research demonstrates that there are subtypes of

depression (such as unipolar and bipolar) which vary in etiology, course, treatment

2

response, and so on. There is massive evidence that several forms of depression are in

fact illnesses or diseases resulting from genetic and biological dysfunction (Beckham,

Leber & Youll, 1995).

Depression and Comorbidity

Clinical depression can sometimes be the result of another illness or psychosocial

factor and vice versa. This means that depression may occur before, during, or after the

presence of another illness, mental or otherwise. This coexistence is known as

comorbidity. Among the major ones are depression and dysthymia (although dysthymia

is sometimes put in the spectrum of depression itself); depression and schizophrenia;

depression and schizoaffective disorder; depression and anxiety disorders; depression and

eating disorders; depression and somatization disorder; and depression and substance

abuse or dependence.

Comorbidity of depression with other illnesses sometimes results in a

misdiagnosis or no diagnosis at all. As a consequence, the depression itself is not treated.

An awareness of the interplay of various factors in precipitating or even aggravating the

suffering of a depressed person is essential in facilitating research for its new

understanding, diagnostic approaches, and methods of clinical care (Maser, Weise, &

Gwirtsman, 1995).

Adolescence and Depression

Childhood depression may differ from that in adulthood particularly with

reference to demographic features. Nevertheless, Angst (1988) suggests that the

phenomenology of depression in adolescence is generally believed to be similar to adult

manifestations. Reynolds (1986) maintains that depression in adolescents is a

3

psychological disorder that if left untreated, may persist for months or years and in severe

form may have life-threatening consequences.

Although the study of depressive disorders in children and adolescents may be

considered a new field dating back about three decades ago, various schools of thought

have branched out and developed during this period. According to Clarizio ( 1994 ), there

are five schools of thought that address depression in children and adolescents. These are

the psychoanalytic school, the masked-depression school, the adult DSM-criteria school,

the developmental school, and the organizational-developmental school.

The psychoanalytically-oriented theorists believed that superego of children and

young people are not yet well-developed or internalized. Therefore, there could not be

any relevant conflicts between the id, the ego, and the superego, which may develop into

a depressive disorder, as in adults. Although clinical observations of children with mood

disorders proved otherwise, the notion continues to dominate this perspective. As an

example, Lefkowitz and Burton (1978) suggest that many normal children exhibit

depressive symptoms as a transitory nature of their development. Thus, depressive

manifestations were not regarded as deviant in either statistical or psychopathological

sense.

The second school of thought that was popular in the 1960s and the 1970s holds

that depression in the younger population is often manifested in "masked" forms.

Depressive symptoms are manifested in terms of enuresis, learning disabilities,

hyperactivity, delinquent behaviour, and psychosomatic complaints, among others. These

are known as "depressive equivalents". On the basis of this assumption, the theorists

went on to describe children with conduct disorders as being depressed.

4

The question arises, how then are we supposed to differentiate between children

with depression and children with conduct disorder without depression? Reynolds (1994)

believes that the depressed youngster may cause very little discomfort to others, yet feel

intense misery, demoralization, and distress. As a result, poor school performance is

consistent with several symptoms of depressive disorders, including poor concentration

and thinking ability, decreased productivity in school, fatigue, psychomotor retardation or

agitation, and insomnia. However, Zoccolillo (1992) was quoted to posit that the

correlates of major depression might well differ in young persons with and without

conduct disorder with respect to age of onset, family history, and longitudinal course into

adulthood.

In the past 20 years, however, the third school which views that depression in

young people can be diagnosed using the same basic criteria as those used for adults,

such as DSM-III, DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and Research Diagnostic Criteria (Spitzer,

Endicott, & Robins, 1977), has been the most popular (Speier, Sherak, Hirsch, &

Cantwell, 1995). Proponents of this perspective have recommended universal acceptance

and use of the DSM-III-R criteria as the foundation for diagnosing major affective

disorders in children and adolescents. The advantage of this viewpoint is the availability

of a large collection of studies for comparing research findings. However, there is a

disadvantage of overlooking significant developmental differences in childhood affective

disorders.

Some authors prefer to discuss depression in adolescence as developmentally

determined. This gave birth to the fourth school, the developmental perspective. Weiner

( 1992), for example, believes that compared to early or middle adolescents, late

5

adolescents accordingly resemble adults more closely in both their manic and their

depressive symptoms. However, he exerts that some older adolescents may also express

depression indirectly, as in the case of the younger ones, through maladaptive behaviour.

In the recent years, a new approach called the organizational-developmental

school has evolved. This fifth approach highlights the significant differences in the

developmental sequencing of cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional capabilities,

which preclude direct, one-to-one behavioural correspondence between depressed

children and adults. Accordingly, the simple categorization of symptoms and behaviours

is not adequate. Behaviours are then viewed as becoming hierarchically organized into

more complex patterns within developmental systems (Cicchetti & Schneider-Rosen,

1986; Sroufe & Rutter, 1984).

The Cognitive Theory of Depression

In recent years, the more emphasis is on cognitive-attributional approach, and

cognitive-behavioural models of depression have received considerable attention

pertaining to the etiology, symptom display, and treatment of depressed children and

adolescents. They represent a theoretically significant departure from traditional

formulations in emphasizing the essential importance of both cognitive and situational

contributions to depressive states.

The cognitive theory of depression proposes that the essential component of a

depressive disorder is a negative cognitive set--that is, the tendency to view the self, the

future, and the world in a dysfunctional, negative manner. This negative cognitive set is

known as the "cognitive triad" (Beck, 1967; Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1979). The first

component revolves around the person's negative view of him or herself as defective,

6

inadequate, diseased, or deprived. In the second component, the person makes long-range

projections, anticipating that his or her current difficulties or suffering will continue

indefinitely. Finally, he or she sees the world as making exorbitant demands and/or

presenting obstacles to reaching his or her life goals.

All depressive disorders, regardless of subtype, are said to manifest the negative

cognitive triad. In addition, the major symptoms of a depressive disorder (affective,

behavioural, somatic, and motivational) are viewed as a direct consequence of the

negative thinking pattern (Sacco & Beck, 1995). In quoting an earlier work by Beck

( 1967), Sacco and Beck ( 1995) describe the following common systematic errors in the

depressed individual's information processing:

1. Arbitrary inference--drawing a conclusion in the absence of evidence or when

the evidence is contrary to the conclusion.

2. Selective abstraction--the tendency to focus on a negative detail in a situation

and to conceptualize the entire experience on the basis of this negative

fragment.

3. Overgeneralization--the tendency to draw a general rule or conclusion on the

basis of one isolated incident, and to apply the concept indiscriminately to

both related and unrelated situations.

4. Magnification and minimization--the tendency to overestimate the

significance or magnitude of undesirable events, and to underestimate the

significance or magnitude of desirable events.

5. Personalization--the tendency to relate external events to oneself without

evidence.

7

6. All-or-none thinking--the tendency to think in absolute, black-or-white, all-or­

none terms.

Automatic Thoughts and Depression

We are familiar with the expression that says "A thought just popped into my

mind" or "A thought crossed my mind." What do we mean when we say that? Do we

mean that we did not consciously try to think, but somehow the thought came? Or does it

mean that it is an involuntary process? This is an automatic thought process. Specifically,

almost all definitions of automatic processes include the following criteria, as suggested

by Hartlage, Alloy, Vazquez., and Dykman (1993):

a) the processes take place without requiring attention or conscious awareness;

b) automatic processes occur in parallel without interfering with other operations

or stressing the capacity limitations of the cognitive system (many automatic

processes can take place at one time); and

c) automatic processes occur without intention or control.

Other researchers such as Schneider and Shiffrin (1977) and Hasher and Zacks (1979),

assert that, once activated, automatic processes run to completion and are difficult to

suppress, modify, or ignore.

A clinically derived concept of automatic thoughts is central to Beck's (1967,

1976) cognitive theory of depression. A main feature of the theory posits that the

depressed individual's negative thinking is systematically biased in a negative direction.

This suggests that automatic negative thoughts and attributional inferences may be

associated with the depressed state. Most depressed persons regard themselves as

unworthy, incapable, and undesirable. Hence, they expect failure, rejection, and

8

dissatisfaction, and perceive most experiences as confirming these negative expectations.

Their thoughts are automatic, repetitive, unintended, and not readily controllable, hence,

they are termed "negative automatic thoughts." Depressed people experience these

negative automatic thoughts as valid, and in severely depressed individuals they dominate

consc10usness.

As negative automatic thoughts may be associated with cognitive vulnerability to

depression rather than current depression, Beck (1967, 1976) refers to depression-prone

rather than currently depressed people when hypothesizing the existence of embedded

negative attitudes. The hopelessness theory hypothesizes that a particular cognitive style,

that is a negative attributional style, is a contributing factor for depression. Even when

depressives are unaware of negative automatic thoughts, the thoughts can still influence

their affect and behaviour (Beck, 1976). Even cognitive psychologists are in agreement

with the idea that automatic thoughts are difficult to suppress or ignore.

A review of the past literature on cognitive processing by depressed individuals

by Hartlage et.al. (1993) indicates that depression interferes more with effortful

processing as compared to its minimal interference with automatic processes.

Nevertheless, results of experiments conducted on automatic processing indicated that

cognitively depression-prone subjects made internal attributions for negative events and

external attributions for positive events automatically (Hartlage, 1990~ Hartlage & Alloy,

1992). This finding suggests that making depressive-content attributions for negative

events may be automated only in depression-prone people. It provides good support for

the hypothesis that depression-prone people sometimes automatically make maladaptive

attributions for even positive events.

9

Culture, Depression, and Cognitive Processes

Are differences in prevalence rate and incidence of depression across culture

really true? Does culture really make a difference in cognitive processes? The extensive

literature in the field of anthropology points to the vast differences among people and

their cultures. It was found that prevalence and incidence figures of various forms of

depressive disorder vary from culture to culture within country and across countries and

the differences are often enormous (Engelsman, 1980, Murphy, 1982, Murphy &

Leighton, 1965, Silverman, 1968, Singer, 1984). For example, Chinese in Indonesia have

more depression than the Indonesians, and the Indians of Alto-Plano in Argentina have

more depression than those from the villages (Sartorius, 1986). Although psychology is

more interested in studying individual differences, the influence of culture as an element

that moulds the human personality is not undermined.

Bronfenbrenner (1979) proposed that human development is largely influenced by

a series of contexts. One of these, termed as the exosystem, represents the society or

culture in which the child is raised, and the impact of that society's rules, norms, and

structures on significant others in the child's life such as parents and caretakers. This

means that the way the parents or caretakers have been brought up would also influence

their child-rearing practices.

In thinking about human development in cultural context, the idea of

developmental niche can be useful (Super and Harkness, 1986). Three major components

make up the developmental niche. The first component is the physical and social settings,

which includes the size and shape of the living space, sleeping and eating schedules,

caretakers, and playmates. The second component is customs of child care and child

10

rearing practices which covers the various customary and ritual exercises that revolve

around bringing up a child. The psychology of the caretakers constitutes the third

component. It refers to the parents or other caretakers' cultural belief systems and related

underlying emotions in relation to the customary child rearing practices, and the

validation of the organization of the physical and social setting of the child.

As the child matures or blooms into adolescence, new challenges and

developmental tasks would be encountered.· Although many of these challenges and tasks

are faced by the adolescents in general, their contexts would influence their approach and

coping strategies. According to Tan ( 1985), an adolescent in the Malaysian context is

faced with four major tasks:

1) Loosening his or her childhood emotional ties to his or her parents in order to

become an independent person in his or her own right;

2) Finding his or her own system of values, beliefs and principles by which to

live;

3) Establishing feelings about his or her sexuality and sexual relationships with

others and taking on responsibilities related to these relationships; and

4) Choosing a vocation or life role so that he or she can find a place for him or

herself as a useful member of the society.

The Malaysian culture is a unique blend of various cultures integrated by one

nationality. Although the various ethnic groups in Malaysia practice their own cultural

and belief systems in most matters, they share certain common traits and practices in

other matters. This integration of multitudinous cultural systems sets the Malaysian

Malay, Chinese, and Indian, different from the Malays in Indonesia, Chinese in China,

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and Indian in India. Nevertheless, the ethnic identity of each group is well-preserved and

this is marked by clear differences in their values and belief systems. As such, we would

find common characteristics among the subjects of interest in this study, but notable

distinctions in the manner these characteristics are being manifested in their lifestyles.

Malays are generally known for their calm, family-oriented way of life. It is

observed that due to cultural and religious dictates, the Malay adolescent is refrained

from expressing him or herself too much, either verbally or non-verbally. As long as his

or her place in the society is secure, he/she is not expected to achieve more. The father or

eldest male is the head of the Malay family. Hence, he is the most respectable member,

and would take decisions on behalf of other family members. This conviction however,

may not be true to the modem, highly educated Malays raising their children in the city.

It is observed that the modem Malays are more open-minded and competitive. Hence,

children are given more freedom to express their opinions and make their own choices in

life.

Nevertheless, the Malay society as a whole prefers to live peacefully without

much emphasis on adopting faster-paced, success-oriented lifestyles. The Malay sense of

purpose for sharing is strong because they come from a strong patriotic background and a

tradition of government service. They are humble and moderate people who like to enjoy

peaceful and quiet life with their families. Asma (1994) maintained that for the Malays,

success is measured in terms of rapport with family, friends and associates. They may be

drawn by tangible rewards and the chance to penetrate a new circle of influential, high

status friends, but are comfortable enough when they receive the respect of those they

know.

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At least four dimensions characterise Chinese identity in contemporary Malaysia

as suggested by Heng (1998): (1) Confucian values and other elements of the Chinese

cultural heritage; (2) language; (3) diet; and (4) adaptation to Malay hegemony.

Following a socio-anthropological point of view, he went on to describe Chinese

immigrants in Malaysia as having a strong cultural identity inherited from China's

ancient civilisation. Adherence to basic Confucian norms pertaining to family

relationships (such as patriarchal authority, filial piety, ancestor worship, and female

subordination) fostered a high level of uniformity across dialect, class and regional lines

within the Chinese population who immigrated to Malaysia.

The Chinese culture traditionally places greater significance upon social and

moral values than upon personal values and competence in the service of individualistic

goals or self-fulfillment. Furthermore, the family has been described as the pivot of

Chinese culture. Cohesion among family members, dependence on the family,

unquestioning acceptance of parental authority, preservation of the status quo, and

profound loyalty are encouraged as a means of preserving the family system (Bond &

Hwang, 1986; Harrison, Serafica, & McAdoo, 1984). Feldman and Rosenthal (1994)

further added a slight change in the trend of child-rearing practices among modem

Chinese culture.

In comparison to the Malays, it is common fact that Chinese are known for their

aggressive, achievement-oriented lifestyles. The Chinese adolescent is expected to be

assertive and competitive in his or her endeavours from as early as possible. This is

clearly observable even at the pre-school ages. Parents would force their children to

achieve and do well in everything they do. He or she is expected to strive to be the best at

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