Lonely,impulsive,and seeking attention: Predictors of narcissistic adolescents’ antisocial and prosocial behaviors on social media

Abstract

Narcissistic youth use social media to engage in a variety of self-promotional behaviors, which have either antisocial or prosocial characteristics. Differing views exist to explain the processes underlying narcissistic self-promotion, either characterizing these actions as intentional, or as impulsive. This study compared intentional attention-seeking and impulsivity as potential mediators of relations between narcissism and both aggressive (i.e., cyberbullying) and prosocial online behavior, and examined whether youth’s loneliness might strengthen these associations. Among Chinese early adolescents (N = 213, M_age = 13.26), narcissism positively predicted youth-reported cyberbullying offending and online prosocial behavior. Loneliness moderated the link between narcissism and attention-seeking, but not impulsivity. Among adolescents higher in loneliness, narcissism indirectly predicted cyberbullying and online prosocial behaviors via attention-seeking. These results highlight narcissism, loneliness, and their interplay as potential predictors of youth’s social media behaviors. Links with attention-seeking, in particular, suggest that educators and practitioners might target youth’s conscious expectations for social rewards when counseling narcissistic adolescents about self-promotional social media use.

Keywords

Narcissism social media attention-seeking impulsive social media use cyberbullying online prosocial behavior loneliness

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Asher

S. R.

Hymel

Renshaw

P. D.

(1984). Loneliness in children. Child Development, 55(4), 1456–1464. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130015

Ferenczi

Marshall

T. C.

Bejanyan

(2017). Are sex differences in antisocial and prosocial Facebook use explained by narcissism and relational self-construal? Computers in Human Behavior, 77, 25–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.08.033

Grapsas

Brummelman

Back

M. D.

Denissen

J. J. A.

(2020). The “why” and “how” of narcissism: A process model of narcissistic status pursuit. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 150–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619873350

Hawk

S. T.

ter Bogt

T. F. M.

van den Eijnden

R. J. J. M.

Nelemans

S. A.

(2015). Too little power, too much information! Power, narcissism, and adolescents’ disclosures on social networking sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 72–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.014

Hawk

S. T.

van den Eijnden

R. J. J. M.

van Lissa

C. J.

ter Bogt

T. F. M.

(2019). Narcissistic adolescents’ attention-seeking following social rejection: Links with social media disclosure, problematic social media use, and smartphone stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 92, 65–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.032

Hepper

E. G.

Hart

C. M.

Sedikides

(2014). Moving narcissus: Can narcissists be empathic? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(9), 1079–1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812

Hinduja

Patchin

J. W.

(2010). Bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide. Archives of Suicide Research, 14(3), 206–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2010.494133

Johnson

S. L.

Leedom

L. J.

Muhtadie

(2012). The dominance behavioral system and psychopathology: Evidence from self-report, observational, and biological studies. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 692–743. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027503

Kiefer

S. M.

Ryan

A. M.

(2011). Students’ perceptions of characteristics associated with social success: Changes during early adolescence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 32(4), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2011.05.002

10.

Konrath

M.-H.

Zarins

(2016). The strategic helper: Narcissism and prosocial motives and behaviors. Current Psychology, 35(2), 182–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9417-3

11.

Lam

L. T.

(2013). The validation of the E-Victimisation Scale (E-VS) and the E-Bullying Scale (E-BS) for adolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.06.021

12.

Lambe

Hamilton-Giachritsis

Garner

Walker

(2018). The role of narcissism in aggression and violence: A systematic review. Trauma Violence Abuse, 19(2), 209–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838016650190

13.

Leckelt

Kufner

A. C.

Nestler

Back

M. D.

(2015). Behavioral processes underlying the decline of narcissists’ popularity over time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(5), 856–871. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000057

14.

Letzring

T. D.

Block

Funder

D. C.

(2005). Ego-control and ego-resiliency: Generalization of self-report scales based on personality descriptions from acquaintances, clinicians, and the self. Journal of Research in Personality, 39(4), 395–422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2004.06.003

15.

Malesza

Kalinowski

(2019). Willingness to share, impulsivity and the Dark Triad traits. Current Psychology, 40(8), 3888–3896. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00351-5

16.

March

Marrington

J. Z.

(2023). Antisocial and prosocial online behaviour: Exploring the roles of the Dark and Light Triads. Current Psychology, 42, 1390–1393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01552-7

17.

Mazinani

Shakiba

Pourshahbaz

Vahedi

(2021). Five Factor Narcissism and threat to fundamental needs following social exclusion engendered by the Cyberball game. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, Article 110279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110279

18.

Morf

C. C.

Rhodewalt

(2001). Unraveling the paradoxes of narcissism: A dynamic self-regulatory processing model. Psychological Inquiry, 12(4), 177–196. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1204_1

19.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O.

(1998–2017). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.).

20.

Nesi

Choukas-Bradley

Prinstein

M. J.

(2018). Transformation of adolescent peer relations in the social media context: Part 1-A theoretical framework and application to dyadic peer relationships. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 21(3), 267–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-018-0261-x

21.

Nesi

Rothenberg

W. A.

Bettis

A. H.

Massing-Schaffer

Fox

K. A.

Telzer

E. H.

Lindquist

K. A.

Prinstein

M. J.

(2022). Emotional responses to social media experiences among adolescents: Longitudinal associations with depressive symptoms. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 51(6), 907–922. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2021.1955370

22.

Qualter

Vanhalst

Harris

Van Roekel

Lodder

Bangee

Maes

Verhagen

(2015). Loneliness across the life span. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 250–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615568999

23.

Ren

Wesselmann

E. D.

Williams

K. D.

(2018). Hurt people hurt people: Ostracism and aggression. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 34–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.026

24.

Rose

(2007). Mediators of the association between narcissism and compulsive buying: The roles of materialism and impulse control. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 21(4), 576–581. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-164X.21.4.576

25.

Shulman

E. P.

Smith

A. R.

Silva

Icenogle

Duell

Chein

Steinberg

(2016). The dual systems model: Review, reappraisal, and reaffirmation. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 103–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2015.12.010

26.

Stewart

R. W.

Drescher

C. F.

Maack

D. J.

Ebesutani

Young

(2014). The development and psychometric investigation of the Cyberbullying Scale. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 29(12), 2218–2238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260513517552

27.

Tanrikulu

Erdur-Baker

(2021). Motives behind cyberbullying perpetration: A test of uses and gratifications theory. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(13–14), NP6699–NP6724. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518819882

28.

Thomaes

Stegge

Bushman

B. J.

Olthof

Denissen

(2008). Development and validation of the childhood narcissism scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 90(4), 382–391. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890802108162

29.

Vazire

Funder

D. C.

(2006). Impulsivity and the self-defeating behavior of narcissists. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(2), 154–165. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1002_4

30.

Wright

M. F.

(2011). The associations between young adults’ face-to-face prosocial behaviors and their online prosocial behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(5), 1959–1962. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.04.019

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.04 MB