Narcissism and friendship quality: A longitudinal approach to long-term friendships

Abstract

Narcissistic admiration and rivalry have been studied in various social relationship contexts, with findings indicating that the former is related to initial popularity while the latter tends to cause problems in the longer term. In particular, the social partners of individuals with high narcissism tend to have higher costs and fewer benefits. But how does narcissism affect the perception of a long-term friendship? To gain insight into perceived friendship quality in dependence on narcissism, NT1 = 831 individuals reported on their narcissism and relationship quality with a close friend at four measurement occasions ( NT2 = 619, NT3 = 484, NT4 = 420). We analyzed bivariate relations and random intercepts cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) of narcissistic admiration and rivalry, and two positive (appreciation and intimacy) and two negative (conflict and dominance) indicators of friendship quality. Our results generally supported findings that narcissistic rivalry tends to lead to less positive and more negative experiences in social relationships. Narcissistic admiration and rivalry were both found to be positively related to conflict. Narcissistic rivalry was negatively related to appreciation and intimacy. At the within-person level, observed with the RI-CLPMs, appreciation influenced later narcissistic rivalry and was influenced by narcissistic admiration and rivalry. Thus, not feeling appreciated was related to subsequent increases in narcissistic rivalry, while more agentic and antagonistic behavior was related to subsequently lower perceptions of appreciation. We discuss that negative effects of narcissistic rivalry found in previous research for friendship formation also seem to emerge in the phase of friendship maintenance.