Abstract
This study analyzes the relationships among parental attachment, narcissism, and gratitude. It further examines the mediation effect of adaptive narcissism on the association between attachment security to fathers and mothers and dispositional gratitude in late adolescence. The current study employed the questionnaire survey method and convenience sampling to collect the research data. A total of 285 Taiwanese university students completed parental attachment, narcissism, and gratitude measures. Structural equation modeling indicated that both paternal attachment (β = .13, p < .05) and maternal attachment (β = .19, p < .05) have direct effects on gratitude. Moreover, adaptive narcissism significantly mediated the association between attachment security to mothers and gratitude (estimated indirect effect = .05, 95% CI = [.01 ~ .12]). However, it showed no mediating effect between attachment security to fathers and gratitude. The findings showed that the effect of secure attachment to mothers on gratitude was significantly greater than that of secure attachment to fathers, suggesting that mother-child attachment security plays a more important role in the development of gratitude.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Ackerman, R. A., Witt, E. A., Donnellan, M. B., Trzesniewski, K. H., Robins, R. W., & Kashy, D. A. (2011). What does the narcissistic personality inventory really measure? Assessment, 18(1), 67–87.
Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1979). Infant-mother attachment. American Psychologist, 34, 932–937.
Alfieri, S., Barni, D., Rosnati, R., & Marta, E. (2014). “Do not leave your values at home”: A study of value orientations of Italian emerging adults and their parents. Psykhe, 23(2), 1–12.
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 411–423.
Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 427–454.
Armstrong, J., & Roth, D. M. (1989). Attachment and separation difficulties in eating disorders: A preliminary investigation. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 8, 141–155.
Barni, D., Alfieri, S., Marta, E., & Rosnati, R. (2013). Overall and unique similarities between parents’ values and adolescent or emerging adult children’s values. Journal of Adolescence, 36(6), 1135–1141.
Barry, C. T., Frick, P. J., & Killian, A. L. (2003). The relation of narcissism and self-esteem to conduct problems in children: A preliminary investigation. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 139–152.
Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226–244.
Bartholomew, K., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Methods of assessing adult attachment: Do they converge? In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 25–45). New York: Guilford Press.
Belsky, J. (1981). Early human experience: A family perspective. Developmental Psychology, 17, 3–23.
Belsky, J., & Nezworski, T. (Eds.). (1988). Clinical implications of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Besser, A., & Priel, B. (2009). Emotional responses to a partner’s imaginary rejection: The roles of attachment anxiety, covert narcissism and self-evaluation. Journal of Personality, 77, 287–325.
Blatt, S. J. (2008). Polarities of experience: Relatedness and self-definition in personality development, psychopathology, and the therapeutic process. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.
Blatt, S. J., & Blass, R. B. (1990). Attachment and separateness: A dialectic model of the products and processes of psychological development. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 45, 107–127.
Booth-LaForce, C., Oh, W., Kim, A., Rubin, K. H., Rose-Krasnor, L., & Burgess, K. (2006). Attachment, selfworth, and peer-group functioning in middle childhood. Attachment & Human Development, 8(4), 30–325.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol. 2. Separation. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. attachment (2nd ed.). New York: Basic books (original ed. 1969).
Bretherton, I. (2010). Fathers in attachment theory and research: A review. Early Child Development and Care, 180, 9–23.
Cai, H., Kwan, V., & Sedikides, C. (2012). A sociocultural approach to narcissism: The case of modern China. European Journal of Personality, 26, 529–535.
Cain, N. M., Pincus, A. L., & Ansell, E. B. (2008). Narcissism at the crossroads: Phenotypic description of pathological narcissism across clinical theory, social/personality psychology, and psychiatric diagnosis. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 638–656.
Campbell, W. K., Brunell, A. B., & Finkel, E. J. (2006). Narcissism, interpersonal, self-regulation and romantic relationships: An agency model approach. In K. D. Vohs & E. J. Finkel (Eds.), Self and relationships. Connecting intrapersonal and interpersonal processes (pp. 57–83). New York: The Guilford Press.
Cater, T. E., Zeigler-Hill, V., & Vonk, J. (2011). Narcissism and recollections of early life experiences. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 935–939.
Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 644–663.
Dieperink, M., Leskela, J., Thuras, P., & Engdabl, B. (2001). Attachment style classification and posttraumatic stress disorder in former prisoners of war. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 71, 374–378.
Duchesne, S., & Ratelle, C. F. (2014). Attachment security to mothers and fathers and the developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms in adolescence: Which parent for which trajectory? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 641–654.
Dwiwardani, C., Hill, P. C., Bollinger, R. A., Marks, L. E., Steele, J. R., Doolin, H. N., Wood, S. L., Hook, J. N., & Davis, D. E. (2014). Virtues Develop From a Secure Base: Attachment and Resilience as Predictors of Humility, Gratitude,and Forgiveness. Journal of Psychology & Theology, 42(1), 83–90.
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (Eds.). (2004). The psychology of gratitude. New York: Oxford University Press.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crises. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Fossati, A., Feeney, J., Pincus, A., Borroni, S., & Maffei, C. (2015). The structure of pathological narcissism and its relationships with adult attachment styles: A study of Italian nonclinical and clinical adult participants. Psychoanalytic, 32(3), 403–431.
Gorrese, A., & Ruggieri, R. (2012). Peer attachment: A meta-analytic review of gender and age differences and associations with parent attachment. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 41, 650–672.
Grossman, K. E., & Grossman, K. (1991). Attachment quality as an organizer of emotional and behavioral responses in a longitudinal perspective. In C. M. Parkes, J. Stevenson-Hinde, & P. Marris (Eds.), Attachment across the life cycle (pp. 93–114). New York: Routledge.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. R. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511–524.
Heine, S. J., & Buchtel, E. E. (2009). Personality: The universal and the culturally specific. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 369–394.
Hoeve, M., Stams, G. J. J. M., Van der Put, C. E., Dubas, J. S., Van der Laan, P. H., & Gerris, J. R. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of attachment to parents and delinquency. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40, 771–785.
Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55.
Karen, R. (1994). Becoming attached: First relationships and how they shape our capacity to love. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kashdan, T. B., Uswatte, G., & Julian, T. (2006). Gratitude and hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in Vietnam war veterans. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 177–199.
Laible, D. (2007). Attachment with parents and peers in late adolescence: Links with emotional competence and social behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(5), 1185–1197.
Lavy, S., & Littman-Ovadia, H. (2011). All you need is love?Strengths mediate the negative associations between attachment orientations and life satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, 1050–1055.
Lawler-Row, K. A., Younger, J. W., Piferi, R. L., & Jones, W. H. (2006). The role of adult attachment style in forgiveness following an interpersonal offense. Journal of Counseling and Development, 84, 493–502.
Lazarus, R. S., & Lazarus, B. N. (1994). Passion and reason: Making sense of our emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, C., & Lamb, M. E. (2003). Fathers’ influences on children’s development: The evidence from two-parent families. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 18, 211–227.
Lin, C.-C. (2015). The relationships among gratitude, self-esteem, depression, and suicidal ideation among undergraduate students. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 56, 700–707.
Lin, C. C., & Yeh, Y. C. (2011). The development of the “inventory of Undergraduates’ gratitude”. Psychological Testing, 58, 2–33.
Little, T. D., Cunningham, W. A., Shahar, G., & Widaman, K. F. (2002). To parcel or not to parcel: Exploring the question, weighing the merits. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 9, 151–173.
Love, K. M., & Murdock, T. B. (2004). Attachment to parents and psychological well-being: An examination of young adult college students in intact families and stepfamilies. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 600–608.
Luke, M. A., Maio, G. R., & Carnelley, K. B. (2004). Attachment models of self and others: Relations with self-esteem, humanity-esteem, and parental treatment. Personal Relationships, 11, 281–303.
Lyons, M., Morgan, K., Thomas, J., & Hashmi, A. A. (2013). Patterns of parental warmth, attachment, and narcissism in young women in United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Individual Differences Research, 11(4), 149–158.
Lystad, A., Watkins, P., & Sizemore, L. (2005, April). The importance of attachment processes to gratitude. In Presentation to the 85th annual convention of the Western psychological association. Portland: OR.
McCullough, M. E., Kilpatrick, S. D., Emmons, R. A., & Larson, D. B. (2001). Is gratitude a moral affect? Psychological Bulletin, 127(2), 249–266.
Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. (2007). Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change. New York: Guilford Press.
Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., & Slav, K. (2006). Attachment, mental representations of others, and gratitude and forgiveness in romantic relationships. In M. Mikulincer & G. Goodman (Eds.), Dynamics of romantic love: Attachment, caregiving, and sex (pp. 190–215). New York: Guildford Press.
Miller, J. D., Lynam, D. R., Hyatt, C. S., & Campbell, W. K. (2017). Controversies in narcissism. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 13, 291–315.
Modell, A. (1975). A narcissistic defense against affects and the illusion of self-sufficiency. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 56, 275–282.
Morf, C. C., & Rhodewalt, F. (2001). Unraveling the paradoxes of narcissism: A dynamic self-regulatory processing model. Psychological Inquiry, 12, 177–196.
Munich, R. L., & Munich, M. A. (2009). Ovetparenting and the narcissistic pursuit of attachment. Psychiatric Annals, 39, 227–235.
Palm, G. (2014). Attachment theory and fathers: Moving from “being there” to “being with”. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 6, 282–297.
Pearson, J. C., & Child, J. T. (2007). A cross-cultural comparison of parental and peer attachment styles among adult children from the United States, Puerto Rico, and India. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 36, 15–32.
Pincus, A. L., & Lukowitsky, M. R. (2010). Pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 421–446.
Raskin, R. N., & Terry, H. (1988). A principal components analysis of the narcissistic personality inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 890–902.
Richaud de Minzi, M. (2006). Loneliness and depression in middle and late childhood: The relationship to attachment and parental styles. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 167, 189–210.
Richaud de Minzi, M. (2010). Gender and cultural patterns of Mothers’ and Fathers’ attachment and links with Children’s self-competence, depression and loneliness in middle and late childhood. Early Child Development and Care, 180(1&2), 193–209.
Sagiv, L., & Schwartz, S. H. (2007). Cultural values in organizations: Insights for Europe. European Journal of International Management, 9(1), 176–190.
Scabini, E., Marta, E., & Lanz, M. (2006). The transition to adulthood and family relations: An intergenerational perspective. London: Psychology Press.
Schmitt, D. P., Alcalay, L., Allensworth, M., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., et al. (2004). Patterns and universals of adult romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions: Are models of self and of other pancultural constructs? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 367–402.
Sedikides, C., Rudich, E. A., Gregg, A. P., Kumashiro, M., & Rusbult, C. (2004). Are normal narcissists psychologically healthy? Self-esteem matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 400–416.
Shaver, P. R., & Hazan, C. (1993). Adult romantic attachment: Theory and evidence. In D. Perlman & W. Jones (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (Vol. 4, pp. 29–70). London: Jessica Kingsley.
Shaver, P. R., & Mikulincer, M. (2004). What do self-report attachment measures assess? In W. S. Rholes & J. A. Simpson (Eds.), Adult attachment: Theory, research, and clinical implications (pp. 17–54). New York: Guilford Press.
Shelton, C. M. (1990). Morality of the heart: A psychology for the Christian moral life. New York: Crossroad.
Smolewska, K., & Dion, K. L. (2005). Narcissism and adult attachment: A multivariate approach. Self and Identity, 4, 59–68.
Song, H., Thompson, R. A., & Ferrer, E. (2009). Attachment and self-evaluation in Chinese adolescents: Age and gender differences. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 1267–1286.
Steele, H., & Steele, M. (2005). Understanding and resolving emotional conflict: The London parent-child project. In K. E. Grossmann, K. Grossmann, E. Waters, K. E. Grossmann, K. Grossmann, & E. Waters (Eds.), Attachment from infancy to adulthood: The major longitudinal studies (pp. 137–164). New York, NY: Guilford Publications.
Tolmacz, R., & Mikulinzer, M. (2011). The sense of entitlement in romantic relationships-scale construction, factor structure, construct validity, and its associations with attachment orientations. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 28, 75–94.
Toussaint, L., & Friedman, P. (2009). Forgiveness, gratitude, and well-being: The mediating role of affect and beliefs. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10, 635–654.
Trumpeter, N. N., Watson, P. J., O'Leary, B. J., & Weathington, B. L. (2008). Selffunctioning and perceived parenting: Relations of parental empathy and love inconsistency with narcissism, depression and self-esteem. Journal of General Psychology, 169, 51–71.
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2009). The narcissism epidemic. Living in the age of entitlement. New York: Free Press.
Twenge, J. M., Konrath, S., Foster, J. D., Campbell, W. K., & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Egos inflating over time: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of the narcissistic personality inventory. Journal of Personality, 76, 875–899.
Vivona, J. M. (2000). Parental attachment styles of late adolescents: Qualities of attachment relationships and consequences for adjustment. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 316–329.
Watkins, P. C. (2014). Gratitude and the good life: Toward a psychology of appreciation. Dordrecht: Springer.
West, M., & Sheldon, A. E. (1988). Classification of pathological attachment patterns in adults. Journal of Personality Disorders, 2, 153–159.
Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 890–905.
Zhang, L., Zhang, S., Yang, Y., & Li, C. (2017). Attachment orientations and dispositional gratitude: The mediating roles of perceived social support and self-esteem. Personality and Individual Differences, 114, 193–197.
Funding
This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China in Taiwan (Contract MOST 105–2410-H-027-010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The author declares that he/she has no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lin, CC. Parental attachment and dispositional gratitude: The mediating role of adaptive narcissism. Curr Psychol 42, 16121–16130 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01465-5
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01465-5