Narcissism and perceived power in romantic relationships

The purpose of the present research was to examine the connections that narcissistic admiration (an agentic form of narcissism characterized by assertive self-enhancement and self-promotion) and narcissistic rivalry (an antagonistic form of narcissism characterized by self-protection and self-defense) had with perceived power in the context of romantic relationships. The results of Study 1 ( N = 375) revealed that narcissistic admiration had a positive association with perceived power, whereas narcissistic rivalry was not associated with perceived power. In Study 2 ( N = 352), we extended the findings from Study 1 by examining whether perceived power moderated the associations that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had with romantic relationship functioning. The results revealed that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had unique and divergent associations with romantic relationship functioning. Further, the results showed that perceived power moderated the association that narcissistic rivalry had with romantic relationship functioning. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding the connection between narcissism and perceived power in romantic relationships.

Multiple Dimensions of Childhood Abuse and Neglect Prospectively Predict Poorer Adult Romantic Functioning

The present study used data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA) to investigate how multiple dimensions of childhood abuse and neglect predict romantic relationship functioning in adulthood. Several dimensions of abuse and neglect (any experience, type, chronicity, co-occurrence, and perpetrator) were rated prospectively from birth through age 17.5 years. Multimethod assessments of relational competence and violence in romantic relationships were conducted repeatedly from ages 20 to 32 years. As expected, experiencing childhood abuse and neglect was associated with lower romantic competence and more relational violence in adulthood. Follow-up analyses indicated that lower romantic competence was specifically associated with physical abuse, maternal perpetration, chronicity, and co-occurrence, whereas more relational violence was uniquely associated with nonparental perpetration. We discuss these novel prospective findings in the context of theory and research on antecedents of romantic relationship functioning.