Can Parenting Styles Affect the Children’s Development of Narcissism? A Systematic Review

Longobardi Claudio

doi:10.2174/1874350101609010084

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to define whether different types of parenting styles (and which ones) affect the child's development in the direction of narcissism, through a systematic review of the studies on the subject in the literature, considering only research published from the Nineties to today. The ten studies considered in this review are representative of the main approaches used to investigate the association between parenting and the emergence of narcissistic features in children. These studies have used different research methods, operationalizing the concept of parenting in diversified ways and showing sensitivity to the multidimensionality of the construct of narcissism. The results of these studies allow us to say that types of positive parenting are more associated in general with the development of healthy narcissistic tendencies, compatible with the normal physical, mental and adaptive child's development.

Highlights

Narcissism can be defined as the capacity of each person to maintain a relatively positive self-image through a series of internal processes, and it fulfills the individual’s need for confirmation, success and self-enhancement in a social context [1, 2]
One study on personality disorders in identical twins suggests the presence of a genetic component in pathological narcissism [10], but recent research has focused on environmental factors that can contribute to the development of narcissism, especially on parental behavior or parenting [11]
Following the statistical processing of the data collected from the questionnaires administered to 119 participants, the researchers did not find a straightforward correspondence between parental overestimation and overt narcissism, and between parental coldness and covert narcissism, but the results suggest that the combination of parental overestimation/admiration [13] and coldness [14, 15] is the key factor in predicting both kinds of narcissism, overt and covert

Summary

Introduction

Narcissism can be defined as the capacity of each person to maintain a relatively positive self-image through a series of internal processes, and it fulfills the individual’s need for confirmation, success and self-enhancement in a social context [1, 2]. Narcissism as a psychological construct was introduced by Havelock Ellis (1898), who theorized the auto-erotic nature of man. It was developed later in psychoanalytic theory [3] and subsequently elaborated in theories of object relations and self-psychology [4, 5] and by other authors, becoming a fundamental node in the development of psychological thought. One study on personality disorders in identical twins suggests the presence of a genetic component in pathological narcissism [10], but recent research has focused on environmental factors that can contribute to the development of narcissism, especially on parental behavior or parenting [11]

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Conclusion