Abstract

We examined mean-level social goal development among peers during middle school, and self-esteem and narcissism as predictors of trait-like goal orientations across time. Survey data were collected on three occasions, in two middle schools in Finland (N = 384; 12-14 years; 53% girls). As expected, average increases in agentic-communal goals (reflecting prosocial self-assertion, or consideration of the self and others) and decreases in submissive-separate (isolation) goals were observed over time. Also, despite cross-sectional (concurrent) links from self-esteem to social status goals among peers reported in prior research, only narcissism was associated with increases in agentic (status) and agentic-separate (dominance) goals and decreases in goals of communal nature, whereas self-esteem was associated with increases in agentic-communal goals alone. Our findings align with and are discussed in the context of existing research on adolescent personal and social development. The findings provide among the first evidence for normative social goal development during middle school, and have implications for understanding self-esteem and narcissism in adolescent development: whereas narcissism is positively related to status and dominance goal development, self-esteem is only related to development of goals high in agentic and communal orientation, reflecting consideration of the self as well as others.

摘要

我们研究了初中同学之间平均水平的社会目标发展情况，以及自尊和自恋作为跨时间特征样目标定向的预测指标。调查数据是在芬兰的两所中学（N = 384； 12-14岁； 53％的女孩）中三次收集的。正如预期的那样，随着时间的推移，平均观察到了代理-共同目标的增加（反映了亲社会的自我主张，或对自我和他人的考虑），而服从分离（隔离）目标的减少。此外，尽管先前研究报告的同龄人中自尊与社会地位目标之间存在横断面（并发）联系，但只有自恋与代理人（状态）和代理人独立（主导）目标的增加以及社区目标的减少有关性质，而自尊与单独的共同目标相联系。我们的发现与有关青少年个人和社会发展的现有研究相吻合，并在其中进行了讨论。这些发现为中学时期规范性社会目标发展提供了第一批证据，并且对理解青少年发展中的自尊和自恋有着重要的意义：自恋与地位和主导目标的发展呈正相关，而自尊则仅与发展有关高目标的目标和社区取向，反映了对自我以及他人的考虑。