The Associations of Self-Reported and Peer-Reported Relational Aggression with Narcissism and Self-Esteem Among Adolescents in a Residential Setting

Abstract

The present study investigated the relations of self-reported and peer-nominated relational aggression (RA) with self-esteem and narcissism among 43 at-risk 16- to 18-year-olds. Self-reported and peer-nominated RA were positively intercorrelated, and each was positively correlated with narcissism. An interaction between self-esteem and narcissism predicted peer-nominated RA, such that narcissism was related to peer-nominated RA particularly for individuals with high self-esteem. Maladaptive, but not adaptive, narcissism uniquely predicted peer-nominated RA. The implications and limitations of this study for research on adolescent self-perception and RA are discussed.

Notes

Note: Peer nominations reflect the raw sum of nominations for an individual across four relational aggression (RA) items. For all analyses, nominations of RA were z-scored within each group (i.e., boys, girls), as nominations occurred separately for boys and girls.

RA = relational aggression.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

¹As shown in Table 1, the raw peer nomination total was positively skewed and leptokurtic for this sample, indicating that most individuals received very few nominations (mode = 2) across the four relational aggression items. Of interest in this study are not only the many individuals with few nominations but also the few individuals who received a relatively high number of nominations from their peers. We feel that the distribution of peer nominations in this sample is likely an accurate reflection of peer perceptions of relational aggression in a residential context, although no known studies have reported such data to date.