Abstract
Parental factors, including pathological narcissism, a maladaptive form of personality style which is characterized by pronounced interpersonal problems, may confer vulnerability to children’s experiences of depression. However, the mechanisms underlying this risk remain largely unexplored. Our longitudinal study assessed whether parent pathological narcissism is associated with childhood depression 1 year later and whether this association is influenced by child attachment and perspective taking. In 59 parent-child dyads, parents reported levels of pathological narcissism, and children reported their levels of depression, attachment and social perspective taking at baseline and 1 year later. Parent pathological narcissism was positively associated with later child depression, anxious and avoidant attachment, and perspective taking. Additionally, parental pathological narcissism had a direct effect on later child depression and an indirect effect through child anxious attachment while controlling for earlier child depression. The association between parent pathological narcissism, and child depression appears to operate through children’s anxious attachment, highlighting a potential mechanism of intergenerational transmission of psychological risk.
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The datasets generated during and analysed during the current study are available from the third author on reasonable request.
Notes
See Supplementary Material for demographic information on each parent-child dyad.
As the PHQ-9 asks about suicidality, children and parents had the opportunity to discuss with A.K. and/or P.L.H. any difficulties that they might have had in participating in this research study. Additionally, during the debrief participants were provided contact information for community resources to receive psychological support.
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This research was supported by a grant awarded to the third author from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, grant #435-2015-0412.
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J.H., P.H., D.K., S.B., contributed to the study design. A.B., A.K., and C.C. conducted analyses and prepared results, tables and the figure. J.H. wrote the main manuscript text, with contributions from S.B., D.K., P.H. and S.M., and all authors participated in editing and revising the manuscript.
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Hewitt, J.M.A., Kealy, D., Hewitt, P.L. et al. Parental pathological narcissism and child depression: the indirect effects of child attachment and perspective taking. Curr Psychol 43, 17039–17048 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05683-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05683-5