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Most older people receive significant assistance from their adult children. Some rely solely on their retirement savings, while others continue to work to support themselves in old age. This study examines the role that adult children play in shaping their parents’ decisions to participate in the labour market. When compared to older people who never received any help from their adult children, the results showed that older people who received assistance more often were less likely to work. This suggests that older individuals’ reduced incentive to work in the labour market is a result of their greater reliance on family support.

Family planning could be defined as the ability of individuals and couples to anticipate and achieve their births. There are many types of contraceptive methods that can be used in family planning that could divided into two categories; namely modern and non-modern contraceptives methods. The choice whether to use modern or non-modern methods is said to be related to the socio demographic determinants of contraceptive use among ever married women aged 15-49 in Malaysia. Data used in this study was obtained from a national survey called Fifth Malaysia Population and Family Survey (MPFS-5) which was conducted by the National Population and Family Development Board in 2014. Multi-stage stratified random sampling method was used across all states in Malaysia. A total of 2736 ever married women who use contraception aged 15-49 years old were subjected to a face-to-face interview. The information was obtained on socio demographic characteristics and family planning practise. Data was analysed by using descriptive analysis, Chi-Square analysis and binary logistic regression. Findings of the analysis revealed that amongst five socio-demographic characteristics under study which are stratum, ethnicity, education level, age and income, only three socio-demographic characteristics known as stratum, ethnicity and education level present a significant association to the modern and non-modern contraceptive use among ever married women in Malaysia. In conclusion, the stratum or the location which either from urban or rural areas, the ethnicity which either Malay, other Bumiputera, Chinese or Indian, and the education level which either no education, primary school, secondary school or tertiary school, are the determinants of modern and non-modern contraceptive use among ever married women aged 15-49 in Malaysia

This paper discusses the performance of three machine learning techniques namely Decision Tree, Logistic Regression and Artificial Neural Network for predicting divorce among Malaysian women. Secondary data were obtained from the Fifth Malaysia Population and Family Survey (MPFS-5) conducted by the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN). The total number of instances in the dataset was 7,644 ever married Malaysian women aged 15 to 59 years old. Divorce is currently a serious problem among the Malaysian community due to various reasons. In 2019, the divorce rate in Malaysia rose by 12% from the previous year. During the first three months of the movement Control Order (MCO), i.e. from March 18 to June 18, 2020, the Syariah Court of Malaysia recorded 6,569 divorce cases. Worse, a total of 90,766 divorce cases were recorded from January to October 2020. Among the six predictive methods, The Decision Tree Model (C5.0) was found to be the best model in classifying divorce among Malaysian women. The accuracy of the C5.0 model was 77.96% followed by the Artificial Neural Network (Multi-Layer Perceptron) and Logistic Regression (Forward Stepwise) model (74.68% and 67.89%, respectively). The order of important predictors in predicting divorce among Malaysian women is the wives’ employment status (0.1531) followed by the husbands’ employment status (0.1396), type of marriage (0.1327), race/ethnicity (0.1327), distant relationship (0.1212). the wives’ qualification level (0.1115), age group (0.1053) and religion (0.0998)

As people grow older, the risk of becoming lonely increases. Loneliness has a negative impact on both mental and physical health in older persons. Although research on loneliness among older persons is expanding, less is known about loneliness in Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia. Therefore, this study’s purpose is to investigate the prevalence of loneliness and its associated factors among older persons in Malaysia using the most recent national survey data from the 2014 Malaysian Population and Family Survey. The sample was extracted to include ever-married Malays, other Bumiputera, and Chinese and Indian groups aged 60 and above who had children. Loneliness was measured using a single self-reported question about whether respondents had ever felt lonely, which was then categorized as a binary variable. A Chi-Square test was performed on feelings of loneliness across socio-demographic characteristics, mental health, physical health, family support, and social participation, followed by logistic regression analysis using significant variables as predictors. The prevalence of loneliness among older persons was 35.7%. The logistic regression showed that factors contributing to the likelihood of feeling lonely include being widowed, divorced, or separated, experiencing anxiety, physical limitations, and sharing problems with children. In contrast, residing in urban areas, having higher education levels, having more sources of income, having life satisfaction, perceiving life as meaningful, having fair and good self-rated health, co-residence with adult children, and participation in religious activities were associated with a lower likelihood of experiencing loneliness. Loneliness is a serious issue among older persons in Malaysia. The government, community, and family should immediately address this psychological problem. The study suggests the need for appropriate strategies for the prevention of loneliness should be developed in the near future.

Family planning is one of the important aspects in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) in Goal 3 on Health and Goal 5 on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. Family planning is the basic need and women’s right to pregnancy, to get optimal health. The use of contraceptive enables women to attain their desired number of children and determine the gap of pregnancies towards the improvement of the families’ well-being of. The aim of this paper is to describe the patterns and preferences of contraceptive use among new acceptors attending a family planning clinic at National Population and Family Development Board (NPFDB) is sixteen states in Malaysia. The data analysis includes the new acceptors of contraception use among married women aged 15 to 49 years old, who attended a family planning clinic at NPFDB for the year 1990 to 2018. There are various types of contraceptive methods considered: contraceptive pills, Intrauterine Contraceptive Device (IUD), condom, hormone injection, implant, sterilization, rhythm and others. Results of the new acceptors at NPFDB clinic, with decreasing pattern from 1990 to 2018. While the use of implant, hormone injection and condom has increased steadily since 2004. The state of Perak has the highest number of new acceptors in most year, while the federal territory of Labuan has the lowest number of acceptors in most years within 29 years from 1990 to 2018. As a conclusion, this study has found that although the use of contraceptive pill is decreasing, it still becomes the most popular among a new acceptors in most of the states in Malaysia since 1990. However, the decreasing pattern of new acceptors for all types of contraceptive methods becomes our concern. Future research should therefore, concentrate on the investigation of the reduction number of new acceptors at NPFDB clinic. This is important to make sure the demands of contraceptive can be met and NPFDB clinics could provide better services towards better quality of life and better families’ well-being.

Contraceptive use among women remains an important public health intervention. Imperatively, the equality of family planning access between rural and urban areas allows all women to have the same opportunities to receive family planning services towards better well-being of families. The study aims at comparing the family planning preferences among women aged 15 to 49 throughout Malaysia in 2018 according to the geographical locations of rural ad urban areas. This is important for resources planning and allocation to the National Population and Family Development Board (NPFDB) clinic based on the locations. The data were collected from 49 NPFDB clinics throughout Malaysia. A total of 3668 married women aged 15 to 49 years used the family planning services in the NPFDB clinic in 2018. In this study, descriptive,. Chi-Square, and logistic regression analyses were carried out to compare the patterns and preferences of contraceptive use. The results analysis shows that the implant is the most popular method among all other contraceptive methods provided by the NPFDB clinics. Specifically, in both rural and urban areas, the three most popular contraceptive methods among married women in Malaysia in 2018 are implant, pill, and condom. Findings of the analysis based on the Chi-Square test show that age group, educations levels, and different types of contraception method were identified to have a significant association with the locations of either rural or urban areas. In conclusions, this study found that women who used implants as a method of contraceptives were often younger, better educated, and lived in an urban area. Therefore, the family planning providers especially NPFDB clinics play a key role in providing information, educating couples, and promoting the use of different family planning methods so that better family well-being could be achieved.

The private sector is playing an increasingly important role in family planning services globally. The active participation of private providers is associated with a higher contraceptive prevalence rate. The objectives is to examine the differentials and determinants of the utilizatio of private providers for family planning services. This study used the 2014 Malaysian Population and Family Survey Data. Cross-tabulations and logistic regression were performed on 1.817 current users of modern methods. Overall, 26% of modern method users obtained their supplies from private clinics/pharmacies and 15.2% from other sources, such as drug stores and sundry shops. The odds of obtaining supply from the private clinics/pharmacies were higher among the Chinese and urban women (AOR>1), and it was lower among those whose husbands decided on family planning had higher odds of obtaining the supply from the other sources (AOR>1). Conclusions, the private sector complements and supplements the public sector in providing family planning services to the public.

Single parenting is not uncommon family setting in Malaysia. Past studies, however, tend to confirm that increasing number of single mothers is also related to increasing number of households living in property. Issues on single mothers in Malaysia has initiated many social groups, non-governmental organizations and government agencies to step in eradicating poverty among the single mothers especially those fall in the B40 income groups. Until today, the current information available on single mothers in Malaysia and to examine their income category and level of poverty. This study utilizes the Fifth Malaysian Population Survey (MPFS5) data. MPFS5 is nationally representative large-scale research conducted by the National Population and Family Development (NPFDB) in 2014. However, for this study, the target respondents are working single mothers (either widowed, divorced, separated); aged 15-59 years old; residing in Peninsular Malaysia and have children staying together with them. Findings from this study reveal that household income of single mothers falls under the B40 category but there is not enough evidence to claim that their household income is below the poverty line. Chi-Square test of associations prove relationship between poverty level to socio – demographic variables such as level of education and residential states, while PLS-SEM techniques show that income category of single mothers is somehow related to the predictors of life satisfaction construct and the overall life satisfaction. Suggestions for some policy recommendations to protect and promote single mothers within the informal sectors is also presented.