Narcissism may be well-established by adulthood, but experiences in the home while growing up may shape the kind of narcissism it turns out to be.

A new study in psychology found that warm parenting and other positive experiences at home were associated with narcissism in early adulthood expressed as a sense of superiority. Negative experiences, such as hostility from parents and conflict among family, were associated with narcissism expressed as exploitative behaviors and vulnerability.

“Narcissism doesn’t just come from a hostile, dysfunctional environment,” said Winkie Ma, the study’s first author and a Ph.D. student in psychology at UC Davis. “Childhood experiences matter, but different types of experiences, both positive and negative, can contribute to different expressions of narcissism.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Different home, different narcissism

The study tested how experiences in the home between ages 10 and 16 affected the likelihood of exhibiting grandiose narcissism from ages 14 to 26 and vulnerable narcissism from ages 19 to 26. The team identified levels and types of narcissism with self-reported questionnaires.

The data include 674 Mexican-origin children living in Northern California who are participating in the California Families Project at UC Davis, the most comprehensive long-term study of Latino families in the U.S. This project is led by Richard Robins, the paper’s co-author and professor emeritus of psychology at UC Davis. 

The analysis showed that positive aspects of the family environment drove the superiority aspect of grandiose narcissism in early adulthood. The researchers said that warm, supportive parenting and positive family relationships may increase children’s sense of feeling special and superior to others, a feeling that followed them into later life.  

The study found no evidence that positive experiences reduced the likelihood of future narcissism.  

Toxic family environments and greater conflict between parents and children were associated with higher levels of exploitativeness, such as attention-seeking or manipulative behavior, in early adulthood. The researchers said this suggests that hostile parenting may lead children to repeat dysfunctional patterns in their adult lives.  

Children who felt more at fault for family conflict were also more likely to have fragile egos as young adults, suggesting a need for validation in adulthood.  

The study found no evidence that the timing of positive or negative experiences had any effect on future narcissism. This result contrasts with the idea of a “sensitive window” during which children’s experiences just before the teenage years have outsized impacts.

“People often treat personality as a destiny that is not modifiable, but this study suggests that’s not true,” said Emorie Beck, the paper’s co-author and an associate professor of psychology at UC Davis.

The findings did not differ significantly between boys and girls. There was also little difference between participants born in the U.S. and Mexico, but hostility from parents had a stronger association with narcissism for participants born in Mexico.  

Narcissism in a unique population

Not all forms of narcissism necessarily cause problems throughout people's lives, the researchers said. Feeling superior, one feature of narcissism measured in this study, is considered adaptive, meaning it might help people get along and even succeed in their social lives, especially during young adulthood. Maladaptive forms of narcissism, such as vulnerability or exploitative behaviors, can cause harm to oneself or others over longer periods of time.

“These are really two parts of the same spectrum,” said Ma, “two aspects of the same personality.”

Ma said it’s unclear how these findings might apply beyond this sample of participants with their unique cultural ties. A prior study with data from the California Families Project identified stronger family bonds and more collectivistic values that remain stable across childhood and adolescence.

Family experiences are also not the only potential driver of narcissism in adulthood, said Ma. Children are embedded within their family as well as their broader community and society at large. Every layer of connection may have an effect.

“Our study captures relationships between the family environment and adult narcissism in a unique sample of individuals with specific cultural ties,” said Ma. “More research is needed to understand how these results generalize beyond these individuals, but our findings give insight into how these processes work in a population that’s understudied in the field.” 

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