نوجوان خودهمدردی: ارتباط با خودشیفتگی، اعتماد به نفس، پرخاشگری و علائم درونیسازی در مردان در معرض خطر

Self-compassion is an attitude toward oneself that involves perceiving one’s experiences as an opportunity for self-awareness and improvement, as well as limited self-judgment after failure. Self-compassion has not been extensively studied in adolescence, a time when self-perception and self-appraisals regarding success and failure take on notable importance. This study considered the connection between self-compassion, narcissism, self-esteem, aggression, and internalizing problems in a sample of 251 male adolescents, ages 16–18, attending a residential program. Self-compassion was negatively correlated with aggression and vulnerable narcissism and positively correlated with self-esteem. In general, self-compassion did not exhibit the hypothesized protective effect on the relation between narcissism and aggression. Findings indicate that, as expected, self-compassion is indicative of a relatively secure, positive sense of self in adolescents.

There have been claims that narcissism has increased in recent generations (Twenge & Campbell, 2008), raising concerns regarding the fallout of a culture of self-perceived superiority. However, some evidence suggests that narcissism is normally distributed in adolescents (Barry, Pickard, & Ansel, 2009), highlighting the importance of individual differences. Self-compassion, a construct that involves how an individual views successes and failures (Neff, 2003b), may have relevance for unraveling the potentially harmful paradox of a society that promotes individualism and positive self-regard despite clear behavioral and social drawbacks. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relations among self-compassion, narcissism, and self-esteem in a sample of at-risk adolescents and to consider the potential mitigating influence of self-compassion on the associations of specific dimensions of narcissism with aggression and internalizing problems. This investigation could have potential intervention implications insofar as fostering a self-compassionate attitude in adolescents might lower the risk of aggression that is tied to narcissism (e.g., Barry et al., 2007 and Thomaes et al., 2008) or of internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety, depression) that have been associated with elements of narcissism involving a fragile sense of self-worth (Barry & Kauten, 2014). This study represents the first known study to address self-compassion in terms of dimensions of adolescent narcissism.