Abstract

• The main aim of this study was to investigate self-esteem, narcissism and aggression of students from universities in Sagaing Township. Next, this study aimed in what way implicit self-esteem and explicit self-esteem predict narcissism and how these three variables predict aggression. A total of 1059 university students (519 males and 540 females) from Universities in Sagaing Township were randomly selected as participants of this study. Name Letter Task (Nuttin, 1985), Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Terry, 1988) and Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Warren, 2000) were used to measure implicit self-esteem, explicit self-esteem, narcissism and aggression of university students in Sagaing Township respectively. As the result of mediation analysis, narcissism mediates the effect of explicit self-esteem on aggression. Next, the result of the moderation analysis showed that implicit self-esteem moderates the relationship between explicit self-esteem and narcissism. And also, the moderated mediation analysis revealed that implicit self-esteem moderates the indirect effect of explicit self-esteem on aggression through narcissism. The low level of implicit self-esteem promotes the degree to which explicit self-esteem is positively connected with narcissism and as a consequence, aggression increases.