Adibah Abdul Latif

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale in Malaysia

INTRODUCTION Anxiety among children has increased in recent years. Culturally adapted questionnaires developed to measure the level of anxiety are the best screening instruments for the general population. This study describes the scientific translation and adaptation of the Spence Childrens Anxiety Scale (SCAS) into the Malay language. METHOD The process of scientific translation of this selfreport instrument followed the guidelines of the Task Force for Translation and Cultural Adaptation of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). RESULTS The Malay version and its adaptation for a new cultural context are described. CONCLUSION The Malay version achieved the aims of the original version and its conceptual and operational equivalence. It may be used as the first Malay instrument to measure anxiety among children in research and in clinical and community settings.

Reliability and Validity Evidence of Instrument Measuring Competencies for Superior Work Performance

A competency assessment tool (The Star-Chef Self-Assessment Tool—SC-SAT) was developed and tested to measure employee’s competency-based on six elements which are the technical, nontechnical, personal quality, self-concept, physical state, and motive. The SC-SAT consists of 159 items measuring these six elements. The sample of this study involved 111 culinary professionals in 4-star and 5-star Malaysian hotels. The instrument was analyzed using Winstep software, software based on Rasch measurement model for polytomous data. The result demonstrates that the SC-SAT has very high item reliability (0.94) with item separation index of 4.02. However, the constructs of physical state and self-concept have separation value lower than 2.0, representing less variation of items. Person reliability is 0.99 with person separation index of 8.78. Only physical state construct have person separation index lower than 2.0, which is 1.72. The raw variance explained by measures is 41.8 % above the 40 % limit expected in Rasch Analysis. The unexplained variance in the 1st contrast of 5.5 % is obtained. Based on the result, the Star-Chef Self-Assessment Tool (SC-SAT) is beneficial in measuring the competencies of culinary professionals.