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Cited by 260Personality Traits and PsychologyChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentBullying, Victimization, and Aggression

Origins of narcissism in children

Open access
Brummelman, Eddie, Thomaes, Sander, Nelemans, Stefanie A., Orobio de Castro, Bram, Overbeek, Geertjan, Bushman, Brad J.·2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1420870112PMC PMC4378434
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Abstract

Significance: Narcissistic individuals feel superior to others, fantasize about personal successes, and believe they deserve special treatment. When they feel humiliated, they often lash out aggressively or even violently. Unfortunately, little is known about the origins of narcissism. Such knowledge is important for designing interventions to curtail narcissistic development. We demonstrate that narcissism in children is cultivated by parental overvaluation: parents believing their child to be more special and more entitled than others. In contrast, high self-esteem in children is cultivated by parental warmth: parents expressing affection and appreciation toward their child. These findings show that narcissism is partly rooted in early socialization experiences, and suggest that parent-training interventions can help curtail narcissistic development and reduce its costs for society.

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Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.1420870112

Cites

49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Overvaluing parents pressure their child to stand out from others.

    “Overvaluing parents on average overestimate children’s IQ scores, overclaim children’s knowledge, and overpraise children’s mathematics performances, while pressuring their child to stand out from others (e.g., by giving them a unique, uncommon first name; Brummelman, Thomaes, Nelemans, Orobio de Castro, & Bushman, 2015).”

    From The "Why" and "How" of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit (2020) · cites this paper as Brummelman, Thomaes, Nelemans, Orobio de Castro, & Bushman, 2015

    The Discussion describes overvaluing parents as telling children they are special and unique and giving them exceptional treatment. That supports an emphasis on being different from others, but the paper does not say parents pressure children to stand out or give them uncommon first names (searched: pressure, stand out, uncommon first name). (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Overvaluation might indeed influence the development of narcissism above and beyond genetic transmission.

    “This finding suggests that overvaluation might indeed influence the development of narcissism above and beyond genetic transmission (Brummelman, Thomaes, Nelemans, Orobio de Castro, Overbeek, & Bushman, 2015).”

    From The "Why" and "How" of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit (2020) · cites this paper as Brummelman, Thomaes, Nelemans, Orobio de Castro, Overbeek, & Bushman, 2015

    The Discussion reports that parental overvaluation predicted increased child narcissism even after controlling for parental narcissism. That supports a possible contribution beyond parents’ own narcissism levels, but the study did not directly measure or rule out genetic transmission. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Overvaluing parents overpraise children's mathematics performances.

    “Overvaluing parents on average overestimate children’s IQ scores, overclaim children’s knowledge, and overpraise children’s mathematics performances, while pressuring their child to stand out from others (e.g., by giving them a unique, uncommon first name; Brummelman, Thomaes, Nelemans, Orobio de Castro, & Bushman, 2015).”

    From The "Why" and "How" of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit (2020) · cites this paper as Brummelman, Thomaes, Nelemans, Orobio de Castro, & Bushman, 2015

    The Discussion says parents may lavish children with praise and describes this as an overvaluing practice. It does not say that overvaluing parents overpraise mathematics performance specifically; searches for mathematics praise found no such passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Third-generation studies have documented differential etiologies for vulnerable versus grandiose narcissism and a multifactorial etiology of NPD.

    “Those studies have documented differential etiologies for vulnerable versus grandiose narcissism and a multifactorial etiology of NPD.”

    From Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Progress in Understanding and Treatment (2022) · cites this paper as [61]

    The Discussion (page not provided) says childhood narcissism has more than one possible origin: parental overvaluation, heritability, and temperamental traits. It does not document different etiologies for vulnerable versus grandiose narcissism or establish a multifactorial etiology of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD); the study concerns narcissism in children. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Parental overvaluation predicts narcissism in children over time, even when parents' own narcissism is taken into account.

    “Parental overvaluation predicts narcissism in children over time, even when parents’ own narcissism, which is associated with parental overvaluation, is taken into account.”

    From The "Why" and "How" of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit (2020) · cites this paper as Brummelman, Thomaes, Nelemans, Orobio de Castro, Overbeek, & Bushman, 2015

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Cites

1 retracted

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1 of the 50 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Trzesniewski KH, Donnellan MB, Robins RW (2013) Development of self-esteem. Current Issues in Social Psychology: Self-Esteem, eds Bos AER, Zeigler-Hill V (Psychol- ogy Press, New York), pp 60-79.

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Authors
Brummelman, E., Thomaes, S., Nelemans, S. A., Orobio de Castro, B., Overbeek, G., & Bushman, B. J.
Affiliations
  • Utrecht University (NL)
  • Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CS, The Netherlands;
  • University of Amsterdam (NL)
  • The Ohio State University (US)
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2015-03-09
Volume
112
Issue
12
Pages
3659-3662
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1420870112
PMC
PMC4378434
OpenAlex
W2135618748
Cited by
260
References
50
Citations by year
2026: 23 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 10
FWCI
31.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.pnas.org/site/misc/userlicense.xhtml (vor, 184 d)
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
  • UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Funders
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (431-09-022)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
Keywords
narcissism, children, parental warmth, social learning theory, psychoanalytic theory, self-esteem, parenting, early socialization, violence and aggression
MeSH terms
Age Factors, Algorithms, Child, Female, Humans, Learning, Male, Narcissism, Parents, Personality Development, Psychoanalytic Theory, Psychometrics, Self Concept, Social Behavior, Models, Statistical, Parenting

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