Journals Proceedings

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to validate the proposed measurement model of Maqasid Syariah Prison quality of life (MSPQoL) among drug abusers required to serve prison sentences in Malaysia. The Maqaṣid Syariah approach of measuring quality of life postulates that safeguarding people’s well-being would be achieved through protecting the people’s five life- related elements, namely “Religion”, “Life”, “Mind”, “Lineage” and “Property”. The specific objective of the study is to ascertain reliable and valid items manifesting the dimensions of MSPQoL. The study was conducted at the three prisons located in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 248 respondents were involved in the study. Respondents were asked to give their responses to the given statements based on their level of agreement or disagreement using self-administered questionnaires guided by trained enumerators. The measurement model of the latent constructs was validated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) procedure in IBM-SPSS_AMOS 21.0. CFA was applied to assess the uni-dimensionality, validity, and reliability of the latent constructs using several statistical measures such as construct validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and composite reliability. The findings of the study suggested that MSPQoL was established by five constructs namely, “Religion”, “Life”, “Mind’, “Lineage” and “Property”, supporting the proposed hypothesis. “Religion, “Life”, “Lineage” and “Property” consisted of three underlying components and were measured by eleven, ten, twelve and nine observable items respectively. “Mind” was measured by two underlying constructs manifested by ten observable items. The findings of the study would provide an alternative reliable and validated measurement of prison quality of life based on the perceptions of the individuals, especially among the drug abuse inmates. Using MSPQoL, the prison healthcare management could identify aspects of quality of life that require improvements and plan appropriate policies and strategies to enhance drug-abuse inmates’ quality of life.