Are my parents psychopaths? How Mental health and self-esteem is impacted by perceived dark traits in parents

Abstract

Relationships between parents and their descendants are necessary for healthy socio-emotional development. For a better understanding of these relationships, past studies found that personality traits significantly impact parenting constructs, such as attachment patterns, parental care, and relationship satisfaction, suggesting that the psychological aspects of parents can affect their descendants. In our research (N = 250), we asked participants to rate how they perceive their parents regarding their aversive personality traits (i.e., Dark Triad), parenting style characteristics, relationship satisfaction, and their own well-being and self-esteem. We then developed two mediational models (SEM), one for mothers and one for fathers. In these models, we assessed how the Dark Triad impacted mental health and self-esteem, mediated by authoritarian parenting style and relationship satisfaction. The models presented a good fit (e.g., CFI > 0.90). Psychopathic traits positively influenced an authoritarian parenting style for both parents, leading to worse relationship satisfaction and affecting their descendants’ mental health and self-esteem. Furthermore, we also observed the indirect effects of parental psychopathy on our outcomes, which were higher for mothers than fathers. Overall, our study provides the first assessment of how parents’ higher levels of dark traits can influence their descendants’ mental health and self-esteem.