Narcissism, psychopathy and Five-Factor Model in sexual assault perpetration

Perpetration of sexual aggression by college men has been well documented and results in a variety of negative outcomes for victims. Although most theory and research on sexual aggression among college students have focused on the role of attitudes and life experiences, recent research with college men suggests that personality traits play a larger role in perpetration in college samples than was once believed. A large (N=235) sample of college men self-reported levels of narcissism, psychopathy, Five-Factor Model (FFM) and sexual assault perpetration. Both the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders-II Personality Questionnaire were used to assess narcissism. Men who scored highly on self-report measures of psychopathic and narcissistic traits and low on self-report measures of the FFM dimensions of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were more likely to report perpetration and reported more frequent perpetration. All of the aforementioned variables distinguished between perpetrators and non-perpetrators; however, FFM domains did not explain significant variance after controlling for narcissism and psychopathy. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.