Refining the vulnerability model of low self esteem and depression: Disentangling the effects of genuine self esteem and narcissism.
A growing body of research supports the vulnerability model of low self esteem and depression, which states that low self esteem is a risk factor for depression. The goal of the present research was to refine the vulnerability model, by testing whether the self esteem effect is truly due to a lack of genuine self esteem or due to a lack of narcissistic self enhancement. For the analyses, we used data from 6 longitudinal studies consisting of 2,717 individuals. In each study, we tested the prospective effects of self esteem and narcissism on depression both separately for each construct and mutually controlling the constructs for each other (i.e. a strategy that informs about effects of genuine self esteem and pure narcissism) and then meta analytically aggregated the findings. The results indicated that the effect of low self esteem holds when narcissism is controlled for (uncontrolled effect .26, controlled effect .27) In contrast, the effect of narcissism was close to zero when self esteem was controlled for (uncontrolled effect .06, controlled effect .01) Moreover, the analyses suggested that the self esteem effect is linear across the continuum from low to high self esteem (i.e. the effect was not weaker at very high levels of self esteem) Finally, self esteem and narcissism did not interact in their effect on depression; that is, individuals with high self esteem have a lower risk for developing depression, regardless of whether or not they are narcissistic. The findings have significant theoretical implications because they strengthen the vulnerability model of low self esteem and depression.
Journal of personality and social psychology