The Relationship of Adolescent′s Self-esteem and Aggression:The Role of Mediator and Moderator
青少年自尊与攻击的关系：中介变量和调节变量的作用

Currently,the relationship between global self-esteem and aggression is being debated by many researchers.Traditionally,researchers believed that individuals with low self-esteem were prone to externalizing problems such as antisocial behavior.However,some researchers questioned this claim arguing that it was high self-esteem and not low self-esteem that was related to high violence.Other researchers suggested that the true psychological trait related to aggression was narcissism.Many empirical evidences have supported all or any of these 3 viewpoints.The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between self-esteem and aggression by adding 2 "third variables",namely,mediator and moderator.After summarizing the relevant reports,self-control was considered as the mediator and peer relationship as the moderator.A total of 705 junior and senior middle school students were assessed on 3 scales and peer nominations.The 3 scales used or developed in this study were self-esteem scale,aggression scale,and self-control scale,and all of them represented relatively good internal consistency reliabilities.The results were as follows:(1) the correlation coefficient of self-esteem and aggression was-0.21,which implied that aggression was related to low self-esteem;(2) the regression coefficient between self-esteem and aggression was not statistically significant after the introduction of self-control into the regression equation,which indicated that self-esteem influenced aggression through self-control and that self-control mediated the relationship between self-esteem and aggression;(3) social status moderated the effect of self-esteem on aggression and detailedly it moderated the strength of the effect;(4) social influence moderated the mediating effect caused by self-control.