| Abstract [eng] |
Adverse childhood experiences are associated with the psychopathology in adults and personality disorders. Difficulties in early interactions with others disrupt a still developing ability to attend to mental states (feelings, wants, intentions) in oneself and in others or the so-called mentalization. Good mentalization abilities is the basis of successful inter-personal relations whereas disruption thereof is linked to personality disorders. In order to aid persons with narcissistic personality traits it is necessary to promote in-depth knowledge on the links among childhood adverse emotional experiences, mentalization, and narcissistic personality traits. The total of 508 persons (396 women, 112 men, age range: 18-70) took part in the survey and the interview was conducted by remote means. Assessments used: Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire; Mentalization Scale; Brief-Pathological Narcissism Inventory. People with stronger narcissistic personality traits were characterized by higher levels of emotional abuse experienced in childhood and poorer mentalization abilities. Higher numbers of experienced emotional abuse were linked to poorer self-related mentalization and more prominent narcissistic vulnerability. Other-related mentalization partly mediated the link between emotional abuse and narcissist traits. Emotional abuse had a direct effect on the forecast of narcissist personality traits in the future. |
