Low Self-Esteem Is Related to Aggression, Antisocial Behavior, and Delinquency

✍ Scribed by Donnellan, M. Brent; Trzesniewski, Kali H.; Robins, Richard W.; Moffitt, Terrie E.; Caspi, Avshalom

• Book ID: 121368921
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 168 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0956-7976
• DOI: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01535.x

✦ Synopsis

The present research explored the controversial link between global self-esteem and externalizing problems such as aggression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency. In three studies, we found a robust relation between low self-esteem and externalizing problems. This relation held for measures of self-esteem and externalizing problems based on self-report, teachers' ratings, and parents' ratings, and for participants from different nationalities (United States and New Zealand) and age groups (adolescents and college students). Moreover, this relation held both cross-sectionally and longitudinally and after controlling for potential confounding variables such as supportive parenting, parent-child and peer relationships, achievement-test scores, socioeconomic status, and IQ. In addition, the effect of self-esteem on aggression was independent of narcissism, an important finding given recent claims that individuals who are narcissistic, not low in self-esteem, are aggressive. Discussion focuses on clarifying the relations among self-esteem, narcissism, and externalizing problems.