BUKU ABSTRAK - Universiti Putra Malaysia

Bullying and Depression among Teenagers
Keywords: Bullying, depression, teenagers
Defederalising Water Resource Management in Malaysia
Dr. Siti Nor Yaacob
Uba Ikechukwu U. and Rumaya Juhari
Faculty of Human Ecology, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 7088; sitinor@putra.upm.edu.my
Dr. Suhaimi Ab. Rahman
Rasyikah Md. Khalid
Faculty of Economics and Management, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8943 7951; suhaimi@econ.upm.edu.my
Keywords: Water resource management, water problems, federal constitution
159
Social Sciences
The present study examined the relationship between bullying and depression among teenagers. The
respondents were 242 teenagers (119 males and 123 females) aged between 13 and 17 years selected from daily
secondary schools in Selangor, Malaysia (mean age = 14.67 years; SD = 1.27). Data were collected using a selfadministered
questionnaire. Adolescent depression was measured by the Children Depression Inventory (CDI:
Kovacs, 1985). Bullying was measured using the bully subscale of the Peer Relationship Questionnaire (Rigley
and Slee, 1993). Pearson correlation was used to examine the association between bullying and depression.
Independent sample t-test was used to examine gender differences in bullying and depression. The findings
of the study revealed that there is a positive and small correlation between bullying and teenage depression (r
=.296, p?.01) with high levels of bullying associated with high levels of depression. The study further discovered
significant difference (t = 3.306, p ?.05) in bullying scores for males (M=10.11, SD = 3.614) and females (M
= 8.75, SD = 2.712). Males were more involved in bullying in comparison to their female counterparts. This
study supports earlier and more recent findings on the relationship between bullying and depression. The study
contributes to the body of knowledge because it highlights the fact that bullying and victimisation can become
a vicious cycle of misery for both bullies and their victims by revealing the dangers of bullying even to teenage
bullies.
Water resource management in Malaysia is governed by the Federal Constitution. However, it is divided into
sectors within various government departments, both at the federal and state level. To date, there are more than
a dozen of water-related laws in Malaysia; each of which governs different ministries and agencies. Despite this
arrangement, water problems like flood, drought and landslide have continued and remain unsolved. Many do
not realize that these problems have been contributed by the current structure of water resource management in
this country. This paper discusses the complexities of the present legal framework with regard to water resource
management in Malaysia. An examination has been made to the current Federal Constitution as well as the
Federal legislations. The study proves that the problem related to water resource management in Malaysia is
partly due to the fragmented legislation on Malaysian water.