CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 42Personality Traits and PsychologyPersonality Disorders and PsychopathologyPsychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research

Narcissistic traits in young people: understanding the role of parenting and maltreatment

Open access
van Schie, Charlotte C., Jarman, Heidi L., Huxley, Elizabeth, Grenyer, Brin F. S.·2020·Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation
DOI 10.1186/s40479-020-00125-7PMC PMC7216544
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Background: Elevated narcissism in young people often sets up a cascade of interpersonal and mental health challenges, reinforcing the need to understand its concomitants. Experiences of maltreatment and different parenting styles have been implicated but findings to date are inconclusive. By simultaneously considering multiple remembered parenting styles and maltreatment in a large sample, this study aims to elucidate possible prognostic factors associated with both grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic traits in youth. Methods: Young people (N = 328, age range: 17–25 years) reported on the remembered interpersonal environment and current grandiose and vulnerable narcissism traits. Structural equation modelling was used to examine maternal and paternal parenting styles and examine the association between experiences of parenting and grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Results: Remembered overprotection from mothers and fathers was associated with both vulnerable and grandiose narcissistic traits. Remembered maternal overvaluation related to current grandiosity, and maternal leniency related to vulnerable narcissistic traits. For paternal parenting, the combination of overvaluation and leniency and overvaluation and care explained grandiose and vulnerable traits. There was no direct effect of remembered parental care or childhood maltreatment on current levels of narcissistic traits. Conclusions: Remembered childhood experiences of being overprotected, overvalued and experiencing leniency in parental discipline, were associated with higher traits of pathological narcissism in young people. Care and maltreatment were non-specific risk factors. Remembered childhood environments of being excessively pampered are associated with grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic traits, characterised by the young person expressing unrealistic self-views, entitlement beliefs and impaired autonomy. In treatment these traits may emerge in the patient-therapist relationship and working through their developmental origins may contribute to outcomes.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1186/s40479-020-00125-7

Cites

84 of 84 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • 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 [62]

    The Results (Parenting styles and narcissism; page not provided) report different patterns of association between remembered parenting or maltreatment and grandiose versus vulnerable narcissistic traits. The study examines associations in young people, not established causes, and does not demonstrate a multifactorial etiology of NPD. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The relationship between trauma and narcissism has been documented and the term 'trauma-associated narcissistic symptoms' has been proposed.

    “The relationship between trauma and narcissism has been documented [58, 65–67] and the term ‘trauma-associated narcissistic symptoms’ has been proposed to identify such features [68].”

    From Living with pathological narcissism: a qualitative study (2020) · cites this paper as [67]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
van Schie, C. C., Jarman, H. L., Huxley, E., & Grenyer, B. F. S.
Affiliations
University of Wollongong (AU)
Corresponding author
Grenyer, Brin F. S.
ORCID
Venue
Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2020-05-12
Volume
7
Issue
1
Pages
10-10
ISSN
2051-6673 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s40479-020-00125-7
PMC
PMC7216544
OpenAlex
W3028294371
Cited by
42
References
84
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3
FWCI
2.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Online (University of Wollongong) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion)
  • ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
NSW Ministry of Health (DOH09–33)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
Keywords
narcissistic personality traits, grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism, parenting styles, child abuse, overprotection, parental care, youth, maternal and paternal parenting, autonomy

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review