Psychiatry Research 219 (2014) 712–713
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Psychiatry Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres
Letter to the Editor Narcissism: Is parenting style to blame, or is there X-chromosome involvement? To the Editors: Sub-clinical narcissism is understood to be a stable, dimensional personality trait portraying self-centeredness, self-aggrandizement, dominance and interpersonal manipulation, as well as being characterized by impaired cognition as evidenced by distorted perceptions of self and others. At extreme levels and with further impairment, narcissism may result in a personality disorder (PD) diagnosis (Campbell and Miller, 2011; Lootens, 2011). However, clinical experience and personality research reveals narcissistic behavior to be more complex than that described for the grandiose type defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) – IV. Covert/hypervigilant subtypes whereby individuals are overly sensitive, easily hurt and shamed are reported to be more prevalent in clinical patients, and fluctuations in individuals between grandiose and vulnerable self-states have been found to be common (Dimaggio, 2012). While aspects of narcissistic personality pathology include maladaptive interpersonal schemas, impaired metacognition, and poor emotion and behavioral regulation (Dimaggio, 2012), to date etiology for narcissism and narcissistic PD development appears complex and remains unclear, despite various theories having been proposed. These include cultural, evolutionary, and gene X environment, as well as parenting and developmental models (Campbell and Miller, 2011). Recently Lootens (2011) found perceived maternal and paternal authoritarian parenting to be associated with offspring narcissism. However, twin studies have consistently demonstrated considerable narcissism heritability (Campbell and Miller, 2011). Therefore, our study aimed to investigate both parenting and genetic factors, including possible mode of inheritance, in sub-clinical grandiose narcissism. One hundred and forty-four community participants belonging to 36 self-reported biological family groups comprising mother, father, sons and daughters, completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), measuring perceptions of parenting style. A total of 18 correlations were performed in the analysis, seven of which related to the comparison of parents–offspring and offspring–offspring NPI scores. In order to control for Type I error, a more stringent criteria of p ¼ 0.01 was adopted. Results indicated a significant father– daughter correlation for levels of narcissism with a near large effect size (r ¼0.48, p ¼0.015), but close to zero correlations for the other parent–offspring dyads. These results were cautiously interpreted as indicating a genetic basis for NPI measured narcissism with possible X-chromosome involvement since a father's single X-chromosome is passed directly to every daughter but not to sons, while a mother passes one of her two X-chromosomes randomly to all offspring. Meiosis provides X-chromosome http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.07.003 0165-1781/& 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
recombination in females only, resulting in a 50 percent possibility of a recombined X-chromosome being passed on by the mother. Furthermore, X-inactivation modifies female X-chromosome gene expression (Migeon, 2007), to the extent that in the case of heterozygous mothers, the father–daughter relationship for X-chromosome gene expression similarity is likely to be stronger than all other parent–offspring dyads. To test the X-linked hypothesis further, sibling correlational analyses were also performed. Sister–sister NPI score correlations were predicted to be higher than brother–brother or sister–brother NPI correlations. Although the data splits required for these analyses reduced sample sizes considerably resulting in inadequate analysis power, trends were observed in the predicted direction: sister–sister, r(7)¼ 0.56, p ¼ 0.19; sister–brother, r(13) ¼0.52, p ¼0.067; and brother– brother, r(6) ¼ 0.42, p ¼0.41. There is possibly some other yet to be determined environmental influence which is either responsible for, or contributes to, the observed father–daughter relationship. However, Goldstein et al. (2011) have suggested that X-linked gene transmission is relevant to psychoses associated with schizophrenia, as well as other affective disorders (e.g. bipolar disorder with psychosis). This notion could have relevance to the characteristic distorted perceptions of narcissistic individuals, since it appears that the delusional symptoms of psychoses exist on a continuum in the general population (Allardyce et al., 2007). Using self-report measures in a narcissistic population is known to have limitations due to the individual's characteristic distorted perceptions of self and others, as well as their tendency to self-aggrandize. This limitation may not be relevant to family dyad comparisons of NPI scores since any individual scoring high on NPI is likely to self-aggrandize, as would be expected for all other family members scoring high on NPI. However, the self-report limitation may be relevant to the accuracy of the PAQ, as recollections of parenting in childhood by narcissistic individuals may be skewed by distorted perceptions of others. Despite this possible limitation, associations between perceived parenting styles and offspring narcissism across the gender and generation groups were few and inconsistent: (a) For the offspring generation, a moderate positive correlation was found between overall offspring narcissism levels and perceived authoritarian fathers, r(62) ¼0.33, p ¼0.01, but not between overall offspring narcissism and perceived authoritarian mothers. (b) For the parent generation, a moderate positive correlation was found for females between levels of narcissism and perceived permissive fathers, r(43) ¼0.32, p¼ 0.036, but not for males. No relationship was found between levels of offspring narcissism and the mother's perceived parenting style. (c) For the combined generations, a small positive correlation was found between overall offspring narcissism levels and perceived authoritarian fathers, r(144) ¼ 0.18, p ¼0.035, but no correlation was found with perceived authoritarian mothers.
Letter to the Editor / Psychiatry Research 219 (2014) 712–713
Although preliminary, we suggest these results may indicate a possible genetic basis, including X-chromosome involvement, for NPI measured narcissistic traits, with PAQ parenting style contributing relatively little to the behavior. Larger scale studies, using DNA verified biological family groups and assessing narcissism by clinical interview and peer report (in addition to the self-report), are suggested to further explore the hypothesis of X-chromosome involvement. Exploration of other parenting styles, extraversion, agreeableness, testosterone levels, emotion recognition, decisionmaking, and sensitivity to reward is also recommended. Outcomes of these studies could provide important information for the development of treatment approaches for narcissism and NPD.
References
713
Dimaggio, G., 2012. Narcissistic personality disorder: rethinking what we know. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 10, 2014, from 〈http://pro.psychcentral.com/ narcissistic-personality-disorder-rethinking-what-we-know/00986.html〉. Goldstein, J.M., Cherkerzian, S., Seidman, L.J., Petryshen, T.L., Fitzmaurice, G., Tsuang, M.T., Buka, S.L., 2011. Sex-specific rates of transmission of psychosis in the New England high-risk family study. Schizophrenia Research 128, 150–155. Lootens, C.M., 2011. An examination of the relationships among personality traits, perceived parenting styles, and narcissism. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 72 (2-B). Migeon, B.R., 2007. Why females are mosaics, X-chromosome inactivation, and sex differences in disease. Gender Medicine 4, 97–105.
Gabrielle J. Milesn, Andrew J.P. Francis Department of Psychology, RMIT University, Plenty Road, Bundoora, Vic 3083, Australia E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G.J. Miles), andrew. [email protected] (A.J. Francis)
Allardyce, J., Suppes, T., Van Os, J., 2007. Dimensions and the psychosis phenotype. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatry Research 16 (S1), S34–S40. Campbell, W.K., Miller, J.D. (Eds.), 2011. The Handbook of Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Theoretical Approaches, Empirical Findings, and Treatments. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken.
Received 7 March 2014 Available online 11 July 2014
n
Corresponding author.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Psychiatry Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres
Letter to the Editor Narcissism: Is parenting style to blame, or is there X-chromosome involvement? To the Editors: Sub-clinical narcissism is understood to be a stable, dimensional personality trait portraying self-centeredness, self-aggrandizement, dominance and interpersonal manipulation, as well as being characterized by impaired cognition as evidenced by distorted perceptions of self and others. At extreme levels and with further impairment, narcissism may result in a personality disorder (PD) diagnosis (Campbell and Miller, 2011; Lootens, 2011). However, clinical experience and personality research reveals narcissistic behavior to be more complex than that described for the grandiose type defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) – IV. Covert/hypervigilant subtypes whereby individuals are overly sensitive, easily hurt and shamed are reported to be more prevalent in clinical patients, and fluctuations in individuals between grandiose and vulnerable self-states have been found to be common (Dimaggio, 2012). While aspects of narcissistic personality pathology include maladaptive interpersonal schemas, impaired metacognition, and poor emotion and behavioral regulation (Dimaggio, 2012), to date etiology for narcissism and narcissistic PD development appears complex and remains unclear, despite various theories having been proposed. These include cultural, evolutionary, and gene X environment, as well as parenting and developmental models (Campbell and Miller, 2011). Recently Lootens (2011) found perceived maternal and paternal authoritarian parenting to be associated with offspring narcissism. However, twin studies have consistently demonstrated considerable narcissism heritability (Campbell and Miller, 2011). Therefore, our study aimed to investigate both parenting and genetic factors, including possible mode of inheritance, in sub-clinical grandiose narcissism. One hundred and forty-four community participants belonging to 36 self-reported biological family groups comprising mother, father, sons and daughters, completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), measuring perceptions of parenting style. A total of 18 correlations were performed in the analysis, seven of which related to the comparison of parents–offspring and offspring–offspring NPI scores. In order to control for Type I error, a more stringent criteria of p ¼ 0.01 was adopted. Results indicated a significant father– daughter correlation for levels of narcissism with a near large effect size (r ¼0.48, p ¼0.015), but close to zero correlations for the other parent–offspring dyads. These results were cautiously interpreted as indicating a genetic basis for NPI measured narcissism with possible X-chromosome involvement since a father's single X-chromosome is passed directly to every daughter but not to sons, while a mother passes one of her two X-chromosomes randomly to all offspring. Meiosis provides X-chromosome http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.07.003 0165-1781/& 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
recombination in females only, resulting in a 50 percent possibility of a recombined X-chromosome being passed on by the mother. Furthermore, X-inactivation modifies female X-chromosome gene expression (Migeon, 2007), to the extent that in the case of heterozygous mothers, the father–daughter relationship for X-chromosome gene expression similarity is likely to be stronger than all other parent–offspring dyads. To test the X-linked hypothesis further, sibling correlational analyses were also performed. Sister–sister NPI score correlations were predicted to be higher than brother–brother or sister–brother NPI correlations. Although the data splits required for these analyses reduced sample sizes considerably resulting in inadequate analysis power, trends were observed in the predicted direction: sister–sister, r(7)¼ 0.56, p ¼ 0.19; sister–brother, r(13) ¼0.52, p ¼0.067; and brother– brother, r(6) ¼ 0.42, p ¼0.41. There is possibly some other yet to be determined environmental influence which is either responsible for, or contributes to, the observed father–daughter relationship. However, Goldstein et al. (2011) have suggested that X-linked gene transmission is relevant to psychoses associated with schizophrenia, as well as other affective disorders (e.g. bipolar disorder with psychosis). This notion could have relevance to the characteristic distorted perceptions of narcissistic individuals, since it appears that the delusional symptoms of psychoses exist on a continuum in the general population (Allardyce et al., 2007). Using self-report measures in a narcissistic population is known to have limitations due to the individual's characteristic distorted perceptions of self and others, as well as their tendency to self-aggrandize. This limitation may not be relevant to family dyad comparisons of NPI scores since any individual scoring high on NPI is likely to self-aggrandize, as would be expected for all other family members scoring high on NPI. However, the self-report limitation may be relevant to the accuracy of the PAQ, as recollections of parenting in childhood by narcissistic individuals may be skewed by distorted perceptions of others. Despite this possible limitation, associations between perceived parenting styles and offspring narcissism across the gender and generation groups were few and inconsistent: (a) For the offspring generation, a moderate positive correlation was found between overall offspring narcissism levels and perceived authoritarian fathers, r(62) ¼0.33, p ¼0.01, but not between overall offspring narcissism and perceived authoritarian mothers. (b) For the parent generation, a moderate positive correlation was found for females between levels of narcissism and perceived permissive fathers, r(43) ¼0.32, p¼ 0.036, but not for males. No relationship was found between levels of offspring narcissism and the mother's perceived parenting style. (c) For the combined generations, a small positive correlation was found between overall offspring narcissism levels and perceived authoritarian fathers, r(144) ¼ 0.18, p ¼0.035, but no correlation was found with perceived authoritarian mothers.
Letter to the Editor / Psychiatry Research 219 (2014) 712–713
Although preliminary, we suggest these results may indicate a possible genetic basis, including X-chromosome involvement, for NPI measured narcissistic traits, with PAQ parenting style contributing relatively little to the behavior. Larger scale studies, using DNA verified biological family groups and assessing narcissism by clinical interview and peer report (in addition to the self-report), are suggested to further explore the hypothesis of X-chromosome involvement. Exploration of other parenting styles, extraversion, agreeableness, testosterone levels, emotion recognition, decisionmaking, and sensitivity to reward is also recommended. Outcomes of these studies could provide important information for the development of treatment approaches for narcissism and NPD.
References
713
Dimaggio, G., 2012. Narcissistic personality disorder: rethinking what we know. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 10, 2014, from 〈http://pro.psychcentral.com/ narcissistic-personality-disorder-rethinking-what-we-know/00986.html〉. Goldstein, J.M., Cherkerzian, S., Seidman, L.J., Petryshen, T.L., Fitzmaurice, G., Tsuang, M.T., Buka, S.L., 2011. Sex-specific rates of transmission of psychosis in the New England high-risk family study. Schizophrenia Research 128, 150–155. Lootens, C.M., 2011. An examination of the relationships among personality traits, perceived parenting styles, and narcissism. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 72 (2-B). Migeon, B.R., 2007. Why females are mosaics, X-chromosome inactivation, and sex differences in disease. Gender Medicine 4, 97–105.
Gabrielle J. Milesn, Andrew J.P. Francis Department of Psychology, RMIT University, Plenty Road, Bundoora, Vic 3083, Australia E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G.J. Miles), andrew. [email protected] (A.J. Francis)
Allardyce, J., Suppes, T., Van Os, J., 2007. Dimensions and the psychosis phenotype. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatry Research 16 (S1), S34–S40. Campbell, W.K., Miller, J.D. (Eds.), 2011. The Handbook of Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Theoretical Approaches, Empirical Findings, and Treatments. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken.
Received 7 March 2014 Available online 11 July 2014
n
Corresponding author.
