Self-esteem in children

The present study examines whether one aspect of problematic adjustment--poor self-concept--contributes to victimization, is a consequence of victimization, or both. A sample of 187 third- through seventh-grade children were tested in both the fall and spring of the academic year on four self-report, self-concept measures: (a) global self-esteem, (b) social self-esteem, (c) self-efficacy for assertion, and (d) self-efficacy for aggression. At both times of testing, children also reported classmates who manifested both victimized and aggressive behaviors. Results indicated that social self-esteem and self-efficacy were both antecedents of victimization even after controlling for T1 levels of victimization. Social self-esteem was also an outcome of victimization after controlling for T1 levels of social self-esteem. A secondary consideration of the research was to investigate whether poor self-concept is predictive or an outcome of aggression, and results are discussed. Theoretical explanations for the specific relations found are advanced.

This study examined influences of perceived parental behaviors and attachment styles on change over time in preadolescents' feelings of self-worth. In each of two successive years, four measures of perceived parental behavior (harassment, over-protectiveness, monitoring, and affectionate contact), two measures of attachment style (preoccupied coping and avoidant coping), and one measure of global self-worth were collected from a sample of 106 children ( M age = 11.1 years in Year 1). Results support the idea that children's perceptions of their parents and attachment styles influence, both individually and jointly, their subsequent feelings of self-worth. Perceived parental monitoring and perceived affectionate contact predicted increases in self-esteem, whereas perceived parental harassment predicted decreases in feelings of self-worth over time. Children's attachment styles also predicted change in global self-worth and in fact mediated the relations between perceived parenting practices and subsequent feelings of self worth.

This study examined how narcissism affects preadolescent children's choices of peer targets for aggression. Based on the idea that narcissists have a grandiose sense of self that requires nourishment, we hypothesized that narcissistic children are especially likely to attack peers who threaten, or fail to nourish, their grandiose self. We assessed narcissism and the degree to which each child's aggression toward peers depended on (a) the child's perceived liking by each peer, (b) the child's liking of each peer, (c) each peer's actual liking of the child, and (d) the child's perceived similarity to each peer. Participants were 197 children in the fourth through eighth grades at a university school. Narcissism predicted the four types of target-specific aggression in disparate ways for boys and girls. Narcissistic boys were especially likely to direct aggression toward male peers whom (a) they perceived as disliking them, (b) they disliked, and (c) they perceived as dissimilar to themselves. Narcissistic girls were especially likely to attack female peers whom they perceived as similar to themselves. Narcissism may enhance different motives for boys and girls in same-sex peer relatinships. We propose that narcissism enhances investment in status and rivalry amoung girls while enhancing the motive to attack dissimilar peers among boys.

Many recent studies have confirmed that mindfulness meditation has wide ranging potential to improve the mental health and well-being of adults, though few studies have explored its potential to help younger populations. In the current study, a sample of 4th and 2nd grade students was trained in the techniques of mindfulness meditation. Baseline electroencephalograms (EEGs) were taken before the training, and again after a 10 week period of daily meditation practice. Measures of attention, creativity, affect, depression, behavioral inhibition/activation, emotion regulation, impulsive/aggressive behaviors, and social anxiety were also administered before and after the meditation practice period. Results indicate that mindfulness meditation produces increased relative left-frontal alpha activation, a brain pattern that has been associated with increased positive affect and more adaptive coping responses to aversive events. Significant post-meditation improvements in depression and creativity were also found in the experimental condition.

This study examined the empirical relationship between narcissism and self-esteem in an attempt to evaluate competing conceptualizations of narcissism. Participants were 236 children (mean age 11.3 years) in the fourth through eighth grades. Counter to earlier conceptions, which characterized narcissism as very high self-esteem, narcissism and self-esteem were slightly negatively correlated. Also, narcissism predicted several adjustment variables, including aggression. None of these relationships was mediated by self-esteem. Lastly, self-esteem moderated the relationship between narcissism and aggression in boys. Taken together, these lines of evidence point to a new conceptualization of narcissism, modeled after self-discrepancy theory, in which narcissism is conceptualized as grandiosity in the ideal self. Implications of this proposal and directions for future research are discussed.