The Moderating Role of Gender in the Connection between Adaptive Narcissism and Maladaptive Narcissism with Academic Self-Efficacy

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between adaptive versus maladaptive narcissism with academic self-efficacy of first-grade high school students in Miandoab city and also to study the moderating effect of gender.

The present study is a descriptive and correlational one, in which 369 individuals were selected using two-stage cluster sampling. The data were collected using three standard questionnaires including; Jink and Morgan Academic Self-Efficacy Inventory (1999), maladaptive covert narcissism scales (2013) and adaptive overt narcissism scale (2013). Data were analyzed using the structural equation method using the multi-group analysis technique.

Research results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between adaptive narcissism and academic self-efficacy, but there was a negative and significant relationship between maladaptive narcissism and academic self-efficacy. The gender variable did not have a moderating effect on the relationship between adaptive narcissism and academic self-efficacy and had a moderating role on the relationship between maladaptive narcissism and academic self-efficacy in boys, not girls.

The final result of the study showed that different types of narcissism have different effects on students’ academic self-efficacy, that amount of this effect is different in between boys and girls students. According to the complexity of the narcissism field; it’s necessary for counselors, psychologists and teachers to obtain more information in this field.