Narcissism, Self-Esteem and Facebook Use

Running head: NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE
The relationship between Narcissism, Self-Esteem and Facebook Use among Adolescents
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NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE 2
The relationship between Narcissism, Self-Esteem and Facebook Use among Adolescents
Introduction
Several researchers have explored the use of social media and its implications for the life
of the users – most specifically their social life. Most researchers have found that self-esteem
acted as a moderator for the use of social media, with people having low self-esteem using the
platforms more as compared to the others (Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012; Steinfield, Ellison, &
Lampe, 2008). The increased time of using social media platforms such as Facebook was used to
bridge the social gap, hence helping them to improve their esteem levels. Błachnio, Przepiorka
and Rudnicka (2016) did a study to establish and evaluate the relationship between narcissism,
self-esteem and Facebook use. They found that narcissism and self-esteem would be
significantly used to predict Facebook use. In this paper, we will explore the relationship
between different types of Facebook use (photos posted, time spent and a number of friends) and
narcissism & self-esteem among adolescents.
Hypothesis
1. H0: There is no difference between narcissistic levels among adolescents with low and
high self-esteem.
HA: More narcissistic adolescents have higher self-esteem.
2. H0: There is no association between narcissism and time spent on Facebook
HA: There is a positive linear relationship between narcissism and time spent on
Facebook
3. H0: There is no significant relationship between narcissism and number of friends.
HA: There is a significant positive linear relationship between narcissism and number of
friends

NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE 3
4. H0: There is no significant relationship between narcissism and number of photos posted
on Facebook
HA: There is a positive linear relationship between narcissism and number of photos
posted on Facebook
5. H0: There is no significant relationship between narcissism levels and time spend on
Facebook for adolescents with low self-esteem
HA: There is a significant negative linear relationship between narcissism levels and time
spend on Facebook for adolescents with low self-esteem
6. H0: There is no difference between self-esteem categories and time spent, number of
photos posted and number of Friends on Facebook
HA: Low self-esteemed narcissistic adolescents use lesser time on Facebook, post fewer
photos and have fewer friends on Facebook.

NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE 4
Results
Table 1: Frequency distribution of sex
Frequency Percent
Valid Female 232 54.1
Male 197 45.9
Total 429 100.0
Table 2: Summary of Age
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
AGE 429 10 17 13.87 1.704
Table 3: Summary statistics of Narcissism
N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std.
Deviation
Skewness Kurtosis
Narcissism 429 38 35 73 54.82 6.538 .129 .033
Figure 1: Histogram of narcissism

NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE 5
Table 4: Summary statistics of time spent on Facebook, number of friends and number of photos
posted on Facebook
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Low Self-
Esteem
Social Networking
Sites - Time
223 7 125 66.47 21.224
Social Networking
Sites - Friends
223 6 312 129.65 57.540
Social Networking
Sites - Photos
223 0 341 179.25 60.564
High Self-
Esteem
Social Networking
Sites - Time
206 10 140 74.99 22.844
Social Networking
Sites - Friends
206 20 310 155.73 56.927
Social Networking
Sites - Photos
206 29 395 222.51 62.195
Table 5: Correlations between Narcissism and time spend on Facebook, number of friends and
photos posted
Social Networking
Sites - Time
Social Networking
Sites - Friends
Social Networking
Sites - Photos
Narcissism Pearson Correlation .320** .223** .489**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000
N 429 429 429
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
All the correlations between time spent on Facebook, number of friends & photos posted on
Facebook and narcissism are positive as shown in table 5 above.
Table 6: Summary statistics of Narcissism levels by Self-Esteem category
Self-Esteem N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
Narcissism Low Self-esteem 223 51.96 5.732 .384
High Self-esteem 206 57.91 5.927 .413

NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE 6
On average, adolescents with low self-esteem have lower Narcissism levels (51.96) compared
with those with high self-esteem (57.91).
Table 7: Homogeneity test
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
F Sig.
NARCISSISM Equal variances assumed .027 .870
Equal variances not assumed
The Levene’s test for equality of variance is not significant, which shows that the variation of
narcissism between adolescents with low and high self-esteem is homogenous, hence assuming
equal variances.
Table 8: Test of Equality of means of Narcissism between low and high self-esteem levels
t
Degree
of
Freedom
Sig. (2-
tailed)
Mean
Difference
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Lower Upper
NARCISSISM
Equal
variances
assumed -10.581 427 .000 -5.957 -7.064 -4.851
The test of equality of means of Narcissism levels between adolescents with low and high
self-esteem is significant, showing that there is a statistically significant difference in narcissism
levels between low and high self-esteemed adolescents.

NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE 7
Table 9: Correlations between times spent on Facebook, Photos posted and number of Friends
on Facebook for adolescents with low self-esteem
Social
Networking
Sites - Time
Social
Networking
Sites - Friends
Social
Networking Sites
- Photos
Narcissism Pearson Correlation .206** .073 .381**
Sig. (2-tailed) .002 .279 .000
N 223 223 223
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
There is a significant positive correlation between narcissism and time spent on Facebook for
adolescents with low self-esteem.
Discussion and Conclusion
The participants of the study had an average of 54.82 for their narcissism levels and
adolescents categorised as having low self-esteem had lower narcissism (51.96) on average
compared to those with high self-esteem (57.91). Narcissism levels were significantly correlated
with time spent (r = 0.32, p-value < 0.001), number of photos (r = 0.489, p-value < 0.001) posted
and number of friends (r = 0.223, p-value < 0.001) on Facebook. This shows that increasing the
time spent on Facebook, a number of friends and photos posted on Facebook improved the
narcissism level of an adolescent. A number of photos posted on Facebook had a stronger
correlation with narcissism compared to the number of friends and time spend on Facebook. Of
the three factors, a number of friends on Facebook had the weakest correlation (r = 0.223).
Self-esteem and narcissism have been proved to be positively correlated by previous
researchers(Błachnio et al., 2016; Marshall, Lefringhausen, & Ferenczi, 2015; Morales &
Marquina, 2013; Skues, Williams, & Wise, 2012). In this study, was found that there was a
significant difference in average narcissism levels among adolescents with low self-esteem and

NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE 8
those with high self-esteem. On average, adolescents with low self-esteem had average
narcissism levels of 51.96 and for those with high self-esteem, levels were 57.91. Since the
difference was statistically significant (p-value < 0.001), we conclude that adolescents with
higher self-esteem would most likely be having higher levels of narcissism(Brummelman,
Thomaes, & Sedikides, 2016).
Further, it was observed that having high self-esteem was associated with more time on
Facebook, more Facebook friends and posting more photos. On average adolescents with low
self-esteem spent 66.47 units of time compared to 74.99 units of time for those categorised as
high-esteemed. Also, low-esteemed adolescents had around 130 friends on Facebook on average,
while the high-esteemed had an average of 156 friends. Finally, the low esteemed adolescents
posted an average of 180 pictures compared to 223 photos of the high-esteemed ones. As
discussed above, these variables were positively correlated with narcissism, hence the
association with self-esteem.
In conclusion, narcissism and photos posted, time spent and a number of friends on
Facebook are positively correlated. All the three factors were significantly associated with
narcissism for adolescents having high-esteem, while a number of friends were not significantly
correlated with narcissism for those with low-esteem.

NARCISSISM, SELF-ESTEEM AND FACEBOOK USE 9
References
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