Country-level correlates of the Dark Triad traits in 49 countries.

OBJECTIVES: The Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) capture individual differences in aversive personality to complement work on other taxonomies, such as the Big Five traits. However, the literature on the Dark Triad traits relies mostly on samples from English-speaking (i.e., Westernized) countries. We broadened the scope of this literature by sampling from a wider array of countries. METHOD: We drew on data from 49 countries (N = 11,723; 65.8% female; AgeMean  = 21.53) to examine how an extensive net of country-level variables in economic status (e.g., Human Development Index), social relations (e.g., gender equality), political orientations (e.g., democracy), and cultural values (e.g., embeddedness) relate to country-level rates of the Dark Triad traits, as well as variance in the magnitude of sex differences in them. RESULTS: Narcissism was especially sensitive to country-level variables. Countries with more embedded and hierarchical cultural systems were more narcissistic. Also, sex differences in narcissism were larger in more developed societies: Women were less likely to be narcissistic in developed (vs. less developed) countries. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the results based on evolutionary and social role models of personality and sex differences. That higher country-level narcissism was more common in less developed countries, whereas sex differences in narcissism were larger in more developed countries, is more consistent with evolutionary than social role models.

Depression-related distress in Mauritian and South African adolescent girls: an exploratory investigation.

Self-reports of depression-related distress were obtained from girls of 14 to 17 years of age living in communities of low socioeconomic status in Mauritius (n = 198) and South Africa (n = 275). Of the girls in the two samples, 26.3 and 21.5%, respectively, had thought about self-harm during the past 5 yr., while between 14.6 and 16.7% had made self-harm attempts. Also, 39.9% of the Mauritian girls and 31.0% of the South Africans reported being sad and tearful every day for more than 2 wk. over the past year. Of the girls, Mauritians (54.0%) and South Africans (32.1%) felt their problems were too much to cope with, while 20.4% of the South African girls and 44.4% of the Mauritians knew of no place to go for help when feeling sad or depressed. The findings highlight the extent of depression-related symptoms and issues related to access to mental health services. Increasing mental health services and awareness programmes are indicated.