The DOI matches its Crossref record; 49 of the 50 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Origins of narcissism in children
Open accessAbstract
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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“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
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“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
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“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
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“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]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“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
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Narcissism seems to be cultivated, in part, by parental overvaluation, which is defined as parents seeing their child as more special and more entitled than others (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 check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
In the citing paper
“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
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
In the citing paper
“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
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Citations
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Narcissism Spectrum Model: A Synthetic View of Narcissistic Personality
Krizan, Z., & Herlache, A. D. (2018) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868316685018 · Cited by 807
Miller, J. D., Lynam, D. R., Hyatt, C. S., & Campbell, W. K. (2017) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816-045244 · Cited by 572
The link between self-esteem and social relationships: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
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Development of self-esteem from age 4 to 94 years: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
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Metadata
- 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)
- 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
- 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
- bronze
- doi.org
- 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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