The purpose of the study is to analyze relationships of self-esteem and narcissism with aggression among Korean adolescents. Supporting traditional views, self-esteem was considered as inversely related to aggression, while narcissism was positively r...
The purpose of the study is to analyze relationships of self-esteem and narcissism with aggression among Korean adolescents. Supporting traditional views, self-esteem was considered as inversely related to aggression, while narcissism was positively related to aggression. Moreover, after either narcissism or self-esteem was statistically controlled individually, both the relationship between self-esteem and aggression and the relationship between narcissism and aggression turned out significantly strong compared to none being statistically controlled:
The participants were 1064 highschool students, including 529 male students and 535 female students. All participants were aged from 16 to 17 years old in the 1st, 2nd grade in eight high schools located in Seoul, South Korea.
Self-Esteem was measured by the The Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965); narcissism was measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPL; Raskin & Hall,1979); aggression was measured by Buss-Durkey Hostility Inventory(BDHI; Buss-Durkee, 1957).
The collected data was analyzed by using SPSS 12.0 statistics program. To investigate reliability and validity of the scales used, Cronbach a coefficient was calculated. Later, these data were analyzed using partial correlation analysis, t-test and ANOVA.
Followed are the major results;
First, the results demonstrated that physical aggression and verbal aggression were significantly related to narcissism while the relationship between anger and narcissism or between hostility and narcissism is not supported when self-esteem was not statistically controlled. However, after self-esteem was statistically controlled, both anger and hostility turned out to be significant variances, and they showed statistically significant correlations with narcissism. In addition, it was proved that the relationship between physical aggression and narcissism and the relationship between verbal aggression and narcissism became stronger when partialing out self-esteem.
Second, anger and hostility were inversely related to self-esteem. However, physical and verbal aggressions were not statistically significantly related to self-esteem when narcissism was not statistically controlled. When controlling for narcissism, the statistically significant relationship between physical aggressions and self-esteem and that between verbal aggressions and self-esteem were found. Interestingly, anger and hostility became more strongly related to self-esteem after narcissism was statistically controlled.
Third, analyzed by several divided groups according to the level of narcissism and self-esteem, the group with high narcissism and low self-esteem showed the highest level of anger, hostility, physical aggression and verbal aggression, whereas the group with low narcissism and high self-esteem showed the lowest.
Therefore, the adolescents who have higher narcissism and lower self-esteem appear to have a higher level of aggression, whereas those who have lower narcissism and higher self-esteem appear to show a lower level of aggression. These findings suggest that aggression is closely associated with high narcissism and low self-esteem among adolescents as well as among adults. Furthermore, narcissism and self-esteem are distinct constructs in terms of conceptual aspects and empirical evidence, and they affect independently to aggression.
The current study suggests that (a) both narcissism and self-esteem should be considered as important factors when predicting aggression, (b) effect of narcissism and self-esteem on aggression should be considered when studying aggression pathologically. These findings also have important implications for psychotherapeutic prevention and intervention models with aggressive adolescents or those at-risk for aggression.