Examined the empirical relationship between narcissism and selfesteem

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.