This study aims to investigate the effects of work-life balance, work environment, and reward and compensation on employee retention in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were collected online from employees within the service industry in Malaysia. Partial least square structure equation modeling was used to test the model and hypotheses. The results reveal that work-life balance and work environment had a strong positive effect on employee retention, but reward and compensation had a much stronger positive effect on employee retention. This research provides unique theoretical contributions by investigating these factors in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak as components of the reciprocal process between employee and employer, and their effects on employee retention. This study also provides vital insights to business organizations to consider designing effective employee retention plans for a successful business.

COVID-19 in Malaysia has significantly affected the higher education system of the country and increased the level of distress among university students. Empirical evidence proposed that environment quality is associated with university students’ life satisfaction during COVID-19. It was found that hope and optimism are linked with greater life satisfaction in general. Although past literature has reported the effects of hope and optimism on life satisfaction, there are limited studies examining the underlying mechanism among Malaysian private university students. Therefore, the current study offers the preliminary understanding of the intervening role of hope and optimism on the relationship between environmental quality and life satisfaction among private university students in Malaysia. A total of 133 private university students in Malaysia were recruited through homogenous convenience sampling. Partial least square structure equation modeling (SmartPLS) was used to analyze the mediation models. The results revealed that only hope mediated the relationship between environmental quality and life satisfaction, but not optimism. Hence, it is proposed that mental health providers should focus on providing hope-related interventions to university students in confronting COVID-19 challenges and ultimately improving life satisfaction.

The "Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire" (EDE-Q) is a cost-effective eating disorder (ED) screening tool that has a significant relationship with the gold standard "Eating Disorder Examination" (EDE) interview. Though it has been widely used for clinical and research purposes, there is a dearth of effort to establish psychometric properties of the latest EDE-Q 6.0 in the Malaysian sample. The extant study adapted and validated EDE-Q 6.0 on Malaysian university's student population (N = 595) from a public university in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Four factors of Restraint, Shape and Weight Concerns, Eating Concerns, and Shape/Weight Overvaluation were constituted from exploratory factor analysis. Still, they failed to indicate apparent replication of the original English EDE-Q 6.0. Malay EDE-Q 6.0 exhibited high internal consistency reliability (α = 0.93), acceptable test-retest reliability over 14 days, and acceptable equivalence reliability of its items with the original English version items. The Malay EDE-Q 6.0 global and subscales scores attained acceptable validity with the global scores of Malay EAT-26 (another ED scale) as evidence of convergent validity and with quality of life (QoL) scale for divergent validity. Accordingly, the adapted EDE-Q 6.0 Malay version is considered a valid and reliable instrument for assessing eating disorder psychopathology among Malaysian university students.

This study aims to systematically search and review the literature on the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire 6.0 (EDE-Q 6.0) across cultures, in terms of their psychometric properties. Electronic search engines and databases, namely, Scopus, OvidMedline, Google Scholar, and reference tracking were used. The search terms used were eating disorder examination-questionnaire, EDE-Q, psychometrics, reliability, validity, and utility. Studies were included if they conducted psychometric evaluations on the EDE-Q 6.0 (i.e., English version) or adapted EDE-Q 6.0. The PRISMA guideline was also applied in the selection of articles for review. Nineteen papers on EDE-Q, specifically on the sixth version were reviewed. EDE-Q 6.0 has been translated and adapted to various languages and psychometrically evaluated on Japanese, Portuguese, American, Finnish, French, Norwegian, British, Australian, Italian, Iranian, and German populations. EDE-Q 6.0 has recorded good to excellent internal reliability across languages and cultures. Mixtures of findings were found concerning its stability and validity. The factorial structure of EDE-Q 6.0 is very controversial with limited fitness into its initial theoretical four-factor structure. Nonetheless, EDE-Q 6.0 recorded high utility values. The EDE-Q 6.0 is yet to be adapted into Malay for the Malaysian population, hence, calls for further research on its adaptation and its psychometric properties. Keywords: Systematic review; EDE-Q 6.0; test adaptation; test validation