Cultural factors moderate the association between narcissism and measures of functioning with peers.

• In Event: 3-108 - Recent Advances in the Study of Distortions in the Self / Narcissism

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Although the self-concept is typically conceived to be a contextually situated developmental construct, research on cultural variations in the self during childhood has been rare. The premise of the present study is that the social correlates and consequences of the self during childhood vary as a function of the basic cultural dimensions such as individualism and collectivism. We examine this premise by testing the hypothesis that narcissistic children (i.e., children who have an inflated sense of self) will be perceived more positively by peers in groups that emphasize individualism rather than collectivism. A multilevel framework is used to examine whether the association between narcissism and peer acceptance will be less negative in groups with a culture of individualism and more negative in groups with a culture of collectivism. Associations with rejection were also assessed. We also examined whether narcissistic peers will be perceived to be more aggressive and less popular in groups that are high in collectivism. We studied these hypotheses with older school-age children in Montreal, Canada and Barranquilla, a city in the Caribbean region of Colombia.

Participants and Methods: Fourth, fifth- and sixth-grade girls and boys (N = 739) from 31 classrooms in eight schools in upper-middle- and lower-middle-class neighborhoods in Montreal and Barranquilla completed a nomination-based sociometric measure, a peer-assessment measure, and asset of self-report questionnaires. The classroom peer groups were cleaved by gender to create 62 same-gender peer groups to be used as the level 2 units in the model. Measures of peer acceptance and rejection were derived from the sociometric data; measures of narcissism, aggression, and popularity were derived from the peer assessment data. Group means for individualism and collectivism were based on the self report measures.

Results: Multilevel modeling, conducted with HLM, was used to assess the degree to which the level 1 association between the measures of narcissism and the measures of acceptance, rejection, aggression, and popularity varied as a function of the level 2 measures of individualism, collectivism, place, gender and SES. The analyses indicated that narcissism was (a) more negatively associated with peer acceptance in groups that are high in collectivism and low in individualism; (b) more positively associated with rejection in groups that are high in collectivism; (c) less positively associated with aggression in groups that are high in individualism; and (d) less negatively associated with popularity in groups that are high in individualism. Even after the effects of the cultural variables were accounted for, the association between narcissism and acceptance was more negative for the Barranquilla participants.

Conclusion: Cultural variables were observed to moderate the correlates of narcissism in older school-age children. The correlate and consequences of narcissism appear to be more positive in contexts that are characterized by individualism. One can expect that the continuity of narcissism may be supported by experiences in groups that favour individualism. At the very least, these findings point to the importance of using a culturally informed design to study the narcissism and its correlates among school age children.

Authors

• William M. Bukowski, Concordia University
  Presenting Author

• Rosalind "Poppy" Wilkinson, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Luz Stella Lopez, Universidad del Norte
  Non-Presenting Author