Narcissism and Adult Attachment: A Multivariate Approach

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between maladaptive narcissism, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance. The secondary objective of the present research was to explore further the differences between overt and covert forms of narcissistic vulnerability. Female participants (N = 171) completed measures of adult attachment, overt narcissism, and covert narcissism. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) explored the multivariate relationship between overt and covert narcissism, on one hand, and adult attachment dimensions of anxiety and avoidance, on the other hand. CCA indicated the two linear combinations of variables overlapped significantly and shared about a quarter of their variance in common. The most important variable within the narcissism set was covert narcissism; and within the adult attachment set, both anxiety and avoidance were important, but the former more than the latter. The implications of the present findings are discussed in the context of past and future research on personality, attachment, and the experience of emotions.