Journal of College Student Development | 2019
Five-Factor Model of Personality, Social Anxiety, and Relational Aggression in College Students
Abstract
Relational aggression involves behaviors intended to harm others’ social relationships, reputation or status, and feelings of belonging (Linder, Crick, & Collins, 2002). Relationally aggressive behaviors (e.g., social exclusion, malicious gossip, ignoring someone) are likely to interfere with college students’ wellbeing and success. Examples of the adverse correlates of relational aggression include peer rejection, anxiety and depression, poor psychological adjustment, problematic alcohol use, and dysfunctional anger (Dahlen, Czar, Prather, & Dyess, 2013; Goldstein, 2011; Werner & Crick, 1999). Campus professionals regularly encounter the impact of relational aggression. University housing offices receive complaints about relationally aggressive living situations, resident assistants are asked to settle disputes involving relationally aggressive students, and counseling center staff encounter students experiencing emotional distress due to relational victimization. By improving our understanding of relational aggression, we will be better equipped to mitigate its impact on campus. We investigated the relationship of the Five-Factor Model (FFM; Goldberg, 1990) of personality and social anxiety to peer relational aggression among college students. The FFM conceptualizes personality as involving five latent domains: intellect/ imagination (i.e., openness to experience), conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability (i.e., the inverse of neuroticism). The FFM has been used to understand the role of personality in overt aggression where the strongest relationships involve low emotional stability, low agreeableness, and low conscientiousness (Hosie, Gilbert, Simpson, & Daffern, 2014; Miller, Zeichner, & Wilson, 2012). While less is known about the relationships of FFM traits to relational aggression, most of the traits should be relevant. Low emotional stability involves an increased tendency to experience unpleasant emotional states (e.g., anger), and low agreeableness involves antagonism and hostility. Students high in extraversion enjoy groups and social events, suggesting they may be more likely to participate in group activities where relational aggression occurs. The role of conscientiousness is less clear, but the inverse relationship between conscientiousness and impulse control suggests that it might be inversely related to at least some forms of relational aggression. Burton, Hafetz, and Henninger (2007) found that low emotional stability, low agreeableness, and low