Abstract

This study examined how narcissism and self-esteem are related to interpersonal stresses and psychological stresses of female college students, and investigated the interaction effects of self-esteem and narcissism in interpersonal stresses and psychological stresses. The participants were 454 female college students, whose ages ranged from 18 to 31. The psychological tests used in this research included the following: Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, Life Stress Scale for college students, and Stress Response Inventory. Results indicated that women's narcissistic traits were positively correlated with self-esteem. Women's narcissism was not significantly related to interpersonal stresses and some of the psychological stresses, such as aggressiveness and anger in correlational analysis, while it was negatively related to depression. However, if it was adjusted by self-esteem in hierarchial regression analyses, women's narcissism accounted variance of interpersonal stresses and all of the psychological stresses, positively. This means women's narcissism may aggravate some stresses if adjusted the positive effect of self-esteem factors. There were no interaction effects of self-esteem and narcissism in women's interpersonal stresses and psychological stresses. It was discussed roles of women's narcissism and self-esteem with previous studies. (Korean J Str Res 2010;18:371∼378)

• Keywords: Narcissism, Self-esteem, Interpersonal stresses, Psychological stresses