Background: Social media usage has been extensively studied with respect to anxiety, depression, self-esteem and overall dissatisfaction. Personality traits influence the nature of online engagement and in turn, may influence the course of psychopathology in vulnerable individuals. Therefore, there is a need to study the association of personality traits like narcissism that may be comorbid with psychological distress in relation to social media usage. Identifying maladaptive personality traits in virtual communications may aid in a holistic understanding of psychological distress and dysfunction experienced by the individual.
Aim: The paper aims to investigate the association between social media usage, narcissism and self-esteem in young adults from Urban India.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 111 participants between the ages of 18 – 25 years. The survey consisted of questions from the hypersensitive narcissism scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale and social media usage questionnaire to asses for narcissism, self-esteem and social media usage respectively.
Results: Social media usage was positively correlated to narcissism (r = 0.52, p = 0.00) and negatively correlated to self-esteem (r = -0.265, p = 0.005).
Conclusion: Low self-esteem and high narcissism were associated with increased social media usage indicating that vulnerable narcissists may be more prone to higher social media usage. The findings from this study aid in a preliminary understanding of how narcissism manifests in virtual context and self-esteem.

Authors:
Rhia Mittal, O.P Jindal Global University, India
Angela Ann Joseph, O.P Jindal Global University, India

About the Presenter(s)
Ms Rhia Mittal is is currently working at O.P Jindal Global University in India

See this presentation on the full schedule – Tuesday Schedule

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