Measuring social-psychological functioning among Malaysian pre-service teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess social-psychological functioning among pre-service teachers. A total of 693 pre-service teachers (male = 187, female = 506) from three public universities participated in this cross-sectional survey study. Responses from the 8-item Flourishing Scale was used to assess the status of social-psychological functioning. The results were then analysed using the IBM SPSS Statistics version 23. We reported statistically significant association between social-psychological functioning and gender (p =.000), the first year was significantly lower social-psychological functioning score than that of other groups (p =.033), while, the pure arts students demonstrated significantly higher mean score compared to other fields of study (p =.000). The analysis also showed that there was a moderate and positive relationship between social-psychological functioning and academic achievement (r =.402, p =.000). In addition, we also provide discussions on possible reasons for these results, with focus on the challenges faced during their transitions into university life.