Narcissism and newlywed marriage: Partner characteristics and marital trajectories.
Open accessAbstract
Despite narcissism's relation with interpersonal dysfunction, surprisingly little empirical research has been devoted to understanding narcissism's effect on intimate relationships in general or marital relationships in particular. The current study addressed this gap using longitudinal data from a community sample of 146 newlywed couples assessed 6 times over the first 4 years of marriage. First, we examined partner characteristics associated with higher levels of narcissism to determine the degree to which couples were matched on narcissism and related traits. Second, we examined how narcissism predicted the trajectory of marital quality over time, testing narcissism's association with initial levels of relationship functioning (the intercept) and changes in relationship functioning (the slope). Results indicated a small degree of homophily but otherwise no clear pattern of partner characteristics for individuals higher in narcissism. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that wives' total narcissism and entitlement/exploitativeness scores predicted the slope of marital quality over time, including steeper declines in marital satisfaction and steeper increases in marital problems. Husbands' narcissism scores generally had few effects on their own marital quality or that of their wives. These findings are notable in indicating that the effects of personality characteristics on marital functioning may take some time to manifest themselves, even if they were present from early in the marriage. Future research into the mediating psychological and interpersonal processes that link wives' narcissism with poorer marital functioning over time would be valuable.
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Among newlyweds, this type of narcissism (for women) is associated with steeper declines in both husbands' and wives' satisfaction over the first four years of marriage.
“Among newlyweds, this type of narcissism (for women) is associated with steeper declines in both husbands' and wives' satisfaction over the first four years of marriage (Lavner et al. 2016).”
From Controversies in Narcissism (2017) · cites this paper as Lavner et al. 2016
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References 51 · Cited by 76
Research works printed but not linked: 36
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- Authors
- Lavner, J. A., Lamkin, J., Miller, J. D., Campbell, W. K., & Karney, B. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Georgia (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Venue
- Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment
- Published
- 2016-04
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 169-179
- ISSN
- 1949-2715 (ISSN-L)
- 1949-2723
- PMC
- PMC4688247
- OpenAlex
- W2185048684
- Cited by
- 76
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 7
- FWCI
- 10.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Personality Disorders Theory Research and Treatment (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH59712)
- Fetzer Institute
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Keywords
- narcissism, newlyweds, marital quality, partner characteristics, homophily, entitlement, exploitativeness, marital satisfaction, marital problems
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Marriage, Narcissism, Personality, Spouses, Young Adult
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