Contingent on contingencies: Connections between anger rumination, self-esteem, and aggression

• We examined the role of contingent self-esteem and anger rumination in aggression.
• Contingent self-esteem, rumination, and gender interacted on reactive aggression.
• Men high on rumination and contingent self-esteem had the most reactive aggression.
• Global self-esteem interacted with rumination and gender on proactive aggression.
• In women only rumination but not global self-esteem predicted proactive aggression.

Mixed findings have engendered debate regarding the relationship between self-esteem and aggression. The present study tested the hypothesis that the contingency of perceived self-worth on external factors (i.e., contingent self-esteem) predicts aggression, particularly reactive, over and above global self-esteem, and that anger rumination exacerbates this relationship. The potential moderating role of gender was also considered. Regression analyses on a sample of 729 undergraduates revealed that contingent self-esteem interacts with both anger rumination and gender to predict reactive aggression. In combination with observations for proactive aggression, results of the present study suggest that the variation in previous findings may be at least partly explained by failure to account for the influences of self-esteem contingency, gender, and functional subtypes of aggression.