Poster #143 - Greater Narcissism in Parents is Associated with Both Harsh and Lax Parenting

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Although there is debate among researchers about the potential beneficial or detrimental effects of narcissism for mental health and distress (Cain, Pincus, & Ansell, 2008; Campbell, 2001), researchers generally concur that narcissism is associated with interpersonal difficulties (e.g., Campbell & Foster, 2002). A small but growing body of research demonstrates that narcissism is associated with hostility and conflict in romantic relationships (e.g., Keller et al., 2014). However, there are no known studies of the role of parent narcissism in parent-child relationships. The purpose of the current study is to examine associations between parent narcissism and multiple aspects of parenting, including measures of harsh parenting (rejection, coercion, punitiveness, and psychological control), positive parenting (warmth, democratic discipline, and autonomy granting), and lax parenting (permissiveness).
Participants were 457 parents (271 mothers) of children aged 5 to 18 (44.4% girls; Mage = 8.43; SD = 3.23) who completed an online survey. Of the mothers, 90.8% were biologically related to the target child; 87.1% of fathers were biologically related to child. Participants were predominantly white (75.3%) and middle class or higher (56.3%). Participants completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Hall, 1979) and the total score was used in analyses. Parenting self-report measures included the Parental Behavior and Dimensions Questionnaire (Reed, Roberts, Roberts, & Piek, 2015) subscales for emotional warmth, punitive discipline, anxious intrusiveness, autonomy support, permissive discipline, and democratic discipline; the Parent as Social Context Questionnaire (Skinner, Johnson, & Snyder, 2005) subscales for rejection and coercion, and three subscales from the Parent Behavior Inventory (hostile control, control through guilt, and instilling anxiety; Schaefer, 1965). Data were analyzed using multiple regression; narcissism was mean centered and cross products with parent sex were computed and added to the models. All models also controlled for child sex, child age, family financial status, and whether the parents were biologically related to the children.
Results indicated that higher narcissism was associated with greater parental rejection, coercion, punitiveness, control through guilt, instilling anxiety, and permissive parenting, and lower parental warmth, autonomy granting, and democratic parenting (See Table 1). There were also three significant interactions between parent narcissism and parent sex, one predicting parental rejection, one predicting parental coercion, and one predicting parental permissiveness. Interactions were very similar in form and an example is plotted in Figure 1. In each case, narcissism was significantly associated with poor parenting for fathers, but not for mothers (however, for parental rejection and permissiveness the associations between narcissism and poor parenting approached significance for mothers).
Results provide the first known evidence that narcissism is related to poor parenting, despite well-established associations between narcissism and other types of dysfunctional interpersonal interactions. Although several associations were found for both mothers and fathers, there were some cases in which father narcissism was more strongly related to poor parenting. Thus, findings shed new light on the functional impairments that may exist for persons with narcissistic personality disorder and their implications for children and families. Clinicians working with narcissistic patients may need to evaluate and intervene in the parent-child relationship.

Authors

• Peggy Keller, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author

• Belle Faith Scott, Wofford College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Haley Michlitsch, University of Kentucky
  Non-Presenting Author