The role of parental overcontrol in psychological distress of vulnerable narcissists: The burden of shame

Personality and Individual Di erences 232 (2025) 112848
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Personality and Individual Differences
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
The role of parental overcontrol in psychological distress of vulnerable
narcissists: The burden of shame
Simon Ghinassi a , Giulia Fioravanti b, Silvia Casale b,*
a
b
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla, 3, 50134 Florence, Italy
Department of Health Sciences, Psychology Unit, University of Florence, Via San Salvi, 12, Pad. 26, 50135 Florence, Italy
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Keywords:
Anxiety
Depression
Parental overcontrol
Shame
Stress
Vulnerable narcissism
Psychological distress can have a wide range of negative consequences, and the central role played by parental
overcontrol in its occurrence has been widely demonstrated. It is also well-established that narcissistic vulner­
ability results from parental overcontrol and is characterized by intense shame experiences, which, in turn, fa­
vors psychological distress. However, no studies have examined these variables simultaneously, integrating them
in a theoretical-based model. Therefore, this study aims to build on previous evidence by exploring whether
parental overcontrol can lead to the onset of depression, anxiety and stress through the serial mediating role of
narcissistic vulnerability and shame proneness. A convenience sample of 643 participants (68%F; Mage = 29.87
± 13.00) was recruited. The assessed structural model produced adequate fit to the data. Results showed the
significant role played by maternal – but not paternal – overcontrol in the onset of vulnerable narcissistic traits
and that shame proneness, particularly bodily shame, fosters the three facets of psychological distress in such
individuals. Clinicians dealing with individuals with high vulnerable traits could help them reduce their distress
by working on the level of narratives relating to experiences of maternal overcontrol perceived during childhood
and feelings of shame expressed, especially when connected to one’s own body.
1. Introduction
in various theoretical perspectives (Baumrind, 1971; Parker et al.,
1979). PO has been defined as a pattern of behaviors involving high
parental vigilance, excessive regulation of child routines, an intrusion
into the child’s decision-making process, and a general inhibition of the
child’s motivation to solve problems independently to the point of
limiting or threatening the child’s autonomy and independence (Parker
et al., 1997). Numerous empirical evidence has shown that PO is a
parenting style closely related to a wide range of negative outcomes
including psychological distress (Miller et al., 2018; Sun et al., 2023).
For example, longitudinal evidence shows that children with at least one
overcontrolling parent were more likely to report symptoms of persis­
tent anxiety during the transition to early adolescence (Borelli et al.,
2015), and numerous studies have highlighted that those who have
experienced PO are more likely to report depressive symptoms (e.g.,
Shute et al., 2019).
The relationship between PO and psychological distress can be un­
derstood in the light of the Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci,
2017) since the intrusiveness and dominance – typical of PO – can lead
to frustration or dissatisfaction of the child’s basic psychological needs
for autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Casale et al., 2023; Van
Psychological distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, and stress) consti­
tutes a high-incidence mental health problem and represents a serious
public health issue. A meta-analysis conducted by Moreno-Agostino
et al. (2021) showed that there is an increasing trend in the prevalence
of experiencing depression over time. Similarly, there has been an
overall growth in anxiety among adults, which rose from 5.12 % in 2008
to 6.68 % in 2018 (Goodwin et al., 2020). This trend is upsetting as
psychological distress is associated with a series of negative conse­
quences, up to an increase in mortality from several major causes (Barry
et al., 2020).
Considering the impact of psychological distress on the well-being of
both individuals and society, it is not surprising that the literature has
focused on the study of possible risk factors of its onset. Among these,
environmental factors, including parental behaviors, turn out to play a
key role as the quality of the parent-child bond during childhood results
to be a factor of central importance for the development (Bowlby, 1969;
Hudson & Rapee, 2005). In particular, Parental Overcontrol (PO) is
consistently discussed as an important dimension of parenting behavior
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G. Fioravanti), [email protected] (S. Casale).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112848
Received 29 March 2024; Received in revised form 16 July 2024; Accepted 16 August 2024
Available online 27 August 2024
0191-8869/© 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
S. Ghinassi et al.
Personality and Individual Di erences 232 (2025) 112848
Petegem et al., 2020). Specifically, overcontrolling parents may convey
to children the message that the world is not safe and they are not able to
cope autonomously with the difficulties that will arise (Becker et al.,
2010; Miller et al., 2018). Taken as a whole, these beliefs contribute to
the possibility that a vicious circle is triggered in which the avoidance of
certain situations strengthens the negative perception that an individual
has of his/her competence and autonomy, which at first contributed to
the onset of such avoidant behavior.
From a psychodynamic perspective, it has been theorized that one of
the important factors involved in the development of the narcissistic
personality structure is the lack of “optimal frustration” experiences
(Kohut, 1971). Such “optimal frustrations” are defined as specific, iso­
lated, and non-traumatic cases in which the child is left without guid­
ance from the parents, and he/she is forced to face challenges
independently of them. Therefore, the inappropriate and intrusive
involvement of overcontrolling parents does not allow children to
experience such “optimal frustrations” as they do not experience what is
called a “good enough” mother (Winnicott, 1945), i.e. a mother who
allows to feel and experience the effects of such frustrations, which are a
prerequisite for normal child development. This might lead the children
to develop compensatory defensive behaviors (e.g., grandiose traits) but
also to depend on external sources for their sense of identity and value,
that is to develop traits of narcissistic vulnerability (Horton, 2011).
Indeed, individuals with vulnerable traits are marked by fragile selfimage, hypersensitivity towards the opinions of others, an intense
desire for approval and defensiveness (Dickinson & Pincus, 2003; Miller
et al., 2011). For these reasons, many scholars have explored the link
between vulnerable narcissism and psychological distress in both the
general (e.g., Casale, 2022) and clinical (Kealy et al., 2023) population.
In line with the psychodynamic perspective of the genesis of
narcissistic vulnerability (Kohut, 1971), there is a growing empirical
consensus that shame is a cornerstone feature to consider in this sce­
nario. Shame is an intense and negative affect that implies the percep­
tion of possessing personal attributes or engaging in behaviors that
others will find unattractive, with the consequent desire to hide or
disappear for the humiliation experienced (Gilbert, 2000). Indeed,
shame is seen as a common experience among individuals with
vulnerable traits so much that they have been described as “shameridden” considering their extreme sensitivity to the opinions of others
(Ronningstam, 2009). This hypothesized association between vulner­
able narcissism and shame has also been supported by numerous
empirical evidence (Boursier & Gioia, 2020; Casale, 2022; Ghinassi
et al., 2023; Kealy et al., 2023). Moreover, the experience of shame is
also implicated in various forms of psychological distress. For example, a
meta-analysis revealed that shame showed a strong and significant as­
sociation with depressive symptoms (Kim et al., 2011). In the same vein,
in their meta-analytic work, Cândea and Szentagotai-Tătar (2018) found
that shame was significantly and positively associated with anxiety
symptoms with an overall medium effect size.
Overall, there is empirical evidence about the negative impacts of PO
in terms of psychological distress, vulnerable narcissism, and shame
proneness. Likewise, there is also evidence to suggest that having
perceived one’s own parents as excessively controlling may have
fostered the structuring of a narcissistic vulnerability, in which shame is
a cornerstone feature. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study
has so far conceptually linked such evidence together, exploring a
possible pathway that links the experience of PO and psychological
distress through the onset of narcissistic vulnerability and the resulting
experiences of shame. Indeed, only one study has verified a path from
childhood adversity to psychological distress through the mediating role
of vulnerable narcissism and shame (Kealy et al., 2023). However, this
study focused on the effect of parental emotional neglect in childhood,
and less is known about the effect of other maladaptive parenting styles
(i.e., parental overcontrol), which have been theoretically considered as
key precursors of narcissistic vulnerability (Horton, 2011). Second, this
study focused on the effect of the overall perception of parental
Table 1
Sociodemographic characteristics of the sample.
Gender
Women
Men
Birthplace
Italy
Abroad
Sentimental status
Unmarried
Married
Legally separated
Divorced
Widowed
Highest educational level
Middle school
High school
University or postgraduate degree
Employment
Student
Working student
Housewife/househusband
Employed
Unemployed
Retired
n
%
437
206
68
32
639
4
99.40
0.60
511
106
11
13
2
79.50
16.50
1.70
2.00
0.30
25
312
306
3.90
48.50
47.50
271
88
6
239
24
15
42.10
13.70
0.90
37.20
3.70
2.30
Note. N = 643.
emotional neglect, and previous studies (e.g., Casale et al., 2023)
highlight that the “source” of overprotection (i.e., the mother’s or the
father’s) needs to be taken into account. Finally, that study did not
distinguish between different shame experiences. Yet, some studies have
shown that narcissistic vulnerability is related to behavioral, charac­
terological, and bodily shame, but the former does not explain the
pathway to negative outcomes (Ghinassi et al., 2023; Jaksic et al., 2017).
1.1. The current study
The above-described previous findings encourage us to propose and
test an overarching model that brings together these variables, as such
an effort might be of help in clarifying the pathways towards psycho­
logical distress among individuals with vulnerable narcissistic traits. The
experience of overcontrolling parents can foster children to develop an
excessive dependence on the validation of others for their sense of self
(Dickinson & Pincus, 2003), as the experiences of “optimal frustrations”
have been hindered (Kohut, 1971). The high feelings of shame for one’s
own sense of incompetence and inadequacy (Kohut, 1971), in turn, may
favor the onset of psychological distress. In detail, the present study
tested a serial mediation model, whereby it was hypothesized that
vulnerable narcissism and shame experiences were serial mediators of
the relationship between both paternal and maternal overcontrol, on the
one hand, and psychological distress, on the other hand.
2. Method
2.1. Procedure and participants
All participants were recruited through advertisements on social
networking sites (e.g., Instagram and Facebook), and data was collected
via an online platform. Participation was voluntary, and before starting
data collection, informed consent was obtained from all participants.
The study was approved by the University Research Ethics Commission
and performed in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration. The only
criterion of inclusion was that both parents were alive during their first
16 years of life. A convenience sample of 679 participants was recruited,
but 36 participants declared that their parents (one or both) were not
alive during their childhood and thus were excluded from the analysis.
Therefore, the final sample comprised 643 participants (68 % females;
Mage = 29.87 ± 13.00 years). A posteriori statistical power analysis,
2
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Personality and Individual Di erences 232 (2025) 112848
Table 2
Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations for all variables.
Variables
M
DS
Skewness
Kurtosis
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1. Age
2. MOPS-MO
3. MOPS-FO
4. HSNS
5. ESS-CS
6. ESS-BOS
7. ESS-BS
8. DASS-D
9. DASS-A
10. DASS-S
29.87
4.77
3.73
28.27
26.23
9.73
21.46
9.50
7.69
11.75
13.00
3.01
2.83
7.19
9.27
3.89
6.46
5.70
5.22
5.05
–
0.525
0.708
0.017
0.393
0.140
0.212
0.222
0.478
− 0.086
–
− 0.484
− 0.061
− 0.330
− 0.814
− 1.251
− 0.822
− 0.877
− 0.616
− 0.722
–
− 0.03
− 0.04
− 0.29*
− 0.32*
− 0.24*
− 0.24*
− 0.28*
− 0.24*
− 0.27*
–
0.35*
0.23*
0.23*
0.13*
0.18*
0.25*
0.24*
0.24*
–
0.16*
0.19*
0.11*
0.16*
0.23*
0.24*
0.23*
–
0.52*
0.35*
0.48*
0.49*
0.38*
0.45*
–
0.55*
0.75*
0.57*
0.43*
0.44*
–
0.52*
0.44*
0.43*
0.45*
–
0.49*
0.39*
0.43*
–
0.71*
0.75*
–
0.77*
Note. MOPS = Measure Of Parental Style; MOPS-MO = MOPS mother’s overcontrol; MOPS-FO = MOPS father’s overcontrol; HSNS = Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale;
ESS = Experience of Shame Scale; ESS-CS = ESS Characterological shame; ESS-BOS = ESS Bodily shame; ESS-BS = ESS Behavioral shame; DASS = Depression Anxiety
Stress Scale; DASS-D = DASS Depression; DASS-A = DASS Anxiety; DASS-S = DASS Stress.
*
p < .001.
imposing a sample size of N = 643 to detect misspecifications of a model
(involving 324 degrees of freedom) corresponding to RMSEA = 0.05 on
an alpha error of 0.01 determined an achieved power of 99 %. The
sample characteristics are shown in Table 1.
Table 3
Descriptive statistics and univariate analyses results by gender.
Women (n =
437)
2.2. Measures
MOPS-MO
MOPS-FO
HSNS
ESS-CS
ESS-BOS
ESS-BS
DASS-D
DASS-A
DASS-S
Higher scores for each measure are indicative of higher levels of the
evaluated dimension. The Italian version (Picardi et al., 2013) of the
Measure of Parenting Style (MOPS; Parker et al., 1997) assesses three
dysfunctional parental styles (indifference, abuse, and overcontrol) that
the participants recall having received from their mother and father
during their first 16 years of life. For the aims of the study, only the
dimension of Overcontrol was considered (e.g., “sought to make me feel
guilty”), which consists of 4 items rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale
from 0 (not true at all) to 3 (extremely true). In the current sample,
Cronbach’s alphas were 0.75 and 0.71, and McDonald’s Omegas were
0.72 and 0.64 for maternal and paternal overcontrol respectively.
The Italian version (Fossati et al., 2009) of the Hypersensitive
Narcissism Scale (HSNS; Hendin & Cheek, 1997) was used to assess the
level of vulnerable narcissism. The HSNS is a 10-item one-dimensional
self-report (e.g., “I often interpret the remarks of others in a personal
way”) rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale from 1 (very uncharacteristic
or untrue) to 5 (very characteristic or true). In the current sample,
Cronbach’s alpha was 0.77 and McDonald’s Omega was 0.76.
The Italian version (Casale & Fioravanti, 2017) of the Experience of
Shame Scale (ESS; Andrews et al., 2002) was used to assess the tendency
to feel ashamed. ESS is a 25-item self-report rated on a 4-point Likerttype, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much), designed to mea­
sure three different forms of shame: Characterological (12 items) (e.g.,
“Have you worried about what other people think of the sort of person
you are?”), Bodily (4 items) (e.g., “Have you wanted to hide or conceal
your body or any part of it?”), and Behavioral (9 items) (e.g., “Have you
worried about what other people think of you when you do something
wrong?”). In the current sample, Cronbach’s alphas were 0.93, 0.90, and
0.90, and McDonald’s Omegas were 0.93, 0.90, and 0.90 for the Char­
acterological, Bodily, and Behavioral shame, respectively.
Finally, the Italian version (Bottesi et al., 2015) of the Depression,
Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21; Henry & Crawford, 2005) was used to
assess the psychological distress. DASS-21 is a 21-item self-report rated
on a 4-point Likert-type, ranging from 0 (it has never happened to me) to
3 (it has happened to me most of the time), resulting in three subscales of
7 items each: Depression (e.g., “I felt I wasn’t worth much as a person”),
Anxiety (e.g., “I felt scared without any good reason”), and Stress (e.g.,
“I tended to over-react to situations”). In the current sample, Cronbach’s
alphas were 0.91, 0.86, and 0.89, and McDonald’s Omegas were 0.91,
0.87, and 0.86 for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress, respectively.
Men (n = 206)
M
SD
M
SD
4.87
3.58
27.90
26.67
10.45
21.98
9.75
8.17
12.25
3.25
2.86
7.24
9.41
3.87
6.52
5.76
5.32
5.02
4.55
4.03
29.04
25.31
8.21
20.35
8.97
6.67
10.67
2.71
2.76
7.03
8.91
3.48
6.18
5.54
4.85
4.96
F (1, 641)
1.54
3.48
3.54
3.05
49.79
9.06
2.64
11.69
13.93
p
η2
0.216
0.062
0.061
0.081
<0.001
0.003
0.104
<0.001
<0.001
0.002
0.005
0.005
0.005
0.072
0.014
0.004
0.018
0.021
Note. MOPS = Measure Of Parental Style; MOPS-MO = MOPS mother’s over­
control; MOPS-FO = MOPS father’s overcontrol; HSNS = Hypersensitive
Narcissism Scale; ESS = Experience of Shame Scale; ESS-CS = ESS Character­
ological shame; ESS-BOS = ESS Bodily shame; ESS-BS = ESS Behavioral shame;
DASS = Depression Anxiety Stress Scale; DASS-D = DASS Depression; DASS-A =
DASS Anxiety; DASS-S = DASS Stress;
2.3. Data analyses
Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations between all variables
were calculated. Prior to conducting the ensuing analyses, the normal
distribution of each variable was investigated using the accepted ranges
of ±2 for skewness and kurtosis (George & Mallery, 2021). Moreover,
gender differences were explored through a series of univariate analyses
of variance (ANOVA). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was per­
formed to test the theoretical hypothesized model using the lavaan
package (Rosseel, 2012) for the R statistical software (version 4.2.1)
with the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation method. The itemparceling method was used to limit the number of parameters to be
estimated using an empirically equivalent method (Landis et al., 2000).
The goodness of fit of the tested model was evaluated using the χ 2 test,
the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), the Compara­
tive Fit Index (CFI), and the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual
(SRMR) considering the following cutoff score: χ 2/df < 5, RMSEA <
0.08, CFI > 0.90, and SRMR < 0.08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999; Kline, 2005).
Finally, the indirect effects were tested with bias-corrected bootstrapped
confidence intervals (CIs) based on 10,000 bootstrap samples
(MacKinnon et al., 2004), and CIs that did not include zero were
indicative of statistically significant mediation effects (Shrout & Bolger,
2002).
3. Results
Since all fields of the survey were mandatory, there were no missing
data. Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations
3
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Personality and Individual Di erences 232 (2025) 112848
Fig. 1. Results of tested model and its standardized solution.
Note. mo1, mo2, mo3, mo4 = Mother’s overcontrol items; fo1, fo2, fo3, fo4 = Father’s overcontrol items; vn1, vn2, vn3 = Vulnerable Narcissism parcels; cs1, cs2, cs3
= Characterological shame parcels; ess22, ess23, ess24, ess25 = Bodily shame items; bs1, bs2, bs3 = Behavioral shame parcels; de1, de2 = Depression parcels; an1,
an2 = Anxiety parcels; st1, st2 = Stress parcels; * = p < .05; ** = p < .001.
among the study variables. Significant low-to-moderate correlations in
the expected direction were found. Gender differences on the study
variables are shown in Table 3.
Since age correlated significantly with all the study variables –
except maternal and paternal overcontrol – and gender differences were
found, the statistical model has been adjusted for both age and gender.
Direct effects of age and gender are shown in Supplementary Table S1.
The structural model produced adequate fit to the data [χ 2 = 1304.833,
df = 324, p < .001; χ 2/df = 4.03; RMSEA = 0.069 (90 % C.I. =
0.065–0.073), CFI = 0.911, SRMR = 0.052]. The variables in the model
accounted for 51.30 %, 39.20 %, and 45.80 % of the variance in
depression, anxiety, and stress levels, respectively. The standardized
estimates are shown in Fig. 1 and all indirect effects in Table 4. As
shown, all factor loadings were above the acceptable threshold of .30
(Hair et al., 2009), except for an item of father’s overcontrol. However,
retaining this item has been justified due to its theoretical significance
and its contribution to the construct of overcontrol (Parker et al., 1997).
Moreover, results revealed significant indirect associations between
maternal overcontrol – but not paternal – and psychological distress
through the mediation of vulnerable narcissism and shame (especially
bodily).
evidence, the present study hypothesized that the experience of over­
controlling parents could favor the onset of psychological distress and
that narcissistic vulnerability and shame proneness are potential path­
ways which could explain this association. Although no single pathway
can fully explain the development of depression, anxiety and stress, the
present study provides evidence of a potential critical developmental
pathway to it, with implications for clinical practice.
Results concerning the positive link between PO and narcissism
appear to be in line with the psychodynamic perspective, according to
which narcissistic vulnerability traits originate from the lack of experi­
ences of “optimal frustration” in the early stages of development (Kohut,
1971). Yet, our results also point out that it is the subjective experience
of having experienced overcontrolling mother (and not father) in
childhood which may be relevant. In this regard, Cramer (2015) high­
lighted the fact that a maternal – but not paternal – parenting style
characterized by excessive control and which does not respond to the
legitimate needs of the child (i.e., authoritarian, see Baumrind, 1971)
appears to be a positive predictor of vulnerable narcissism. The central
role played by the maternal figure is not surprising as the mother is the
parent most present in the early stages of the child’s life, during which
the personality takes shape and is structured. Taken together, this evi­
dence suggests that the presence of an excessively controlling and
intrusive mother may interfere with children’s ability to develop a sense
of agency and self-esteem, as well as fostering an overreliance on others
for their sense of self, all characteristics associated with narcissistic
vulnerability (Dickinson & Pincus, 2003; Miller et al., 2011).
The current study is also broadly in line with both theoretical spec­
ulation (Kohut, 1971; Ronningstam, 2009) and empirical evidence
(Boursier & Gioia, 2020; Kealy et al., 2023) which identifies the pro­
pensity to shame as a cornerstone affect among individuals with high
vulnerable narcissistic traits. Similarly, results showed that vulnerable
narcissism significantly predicted shame which, in turn, predict
depression, anxiety, and stress, in accordance with previous studies
(Casale, 2022; Kealy et al., 2023). The present study builds upon
4. Discussion
The present study is based on the premise that having perceived
one’s parents as excessively controlling represents a significant risk
factor for depression, anxiety and stress (Miller et al., 2018; Sun et al.,
2023), as well as for a more widespread personality fragility, namely
narcissistic vulnerability (Kohut, 1971). Moreover, there is a general
consensus that those with high narcissistic vulnerability traits are more
at risk of psychological distress (Kealy et al., 2023) and that shameproneness – a cornerstone feature of vulnerable narcissism (Kohut,
1971; Ronningstam, 2009) – is a key process in such relationship (Kealy
et al., 2023). Starting from these theoretical premises and empirical
4
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Personality and Individual Di erences 232 (2025) 112848
Table 4
Indirect effects.
Psychiatric Association, 2022). Arguably, this mediating role could be
interpreted in the light of the fact that characterological shame is a
stable and global disposition (Andrews et al., 2002), and experiencing it
constantly can lead over time to the onset of a depressive symptom­
atology, as changing dispositional aspects could be perceived beyond
one’s control.
Despite the compelling nature of our findings, the present study is
not without limitations. First, given the cross-sectional nature of the
study, it is impossible to rule out that feelings of shame and psycho­
logical distress influence each other, resulting in a vicious circle.
Therefore, future studies should investigate these links longitudinally. A
second limitation concerns the convenience sample used, which is not
well balanced by gender and consists mainly of young Italian adults.
Some researchers suggested that parental overcontrol might have a
different effect (e.g., be more or less damaging) depending on the cul­
ture, as the interpretation of parental behaviors might vary and cultural
differences in parenting affect children’s development (e.g., Choe et al.,
2023). Following this perspective, we cannot exclude that an effect of
paternal overcontrol on vulnerable narcissism could be detected in
cultures in which fathers’ responsibilities to take part in child-rearing
have become more demanding. Moreover, other parental characteris­
tics (e.g., narcissistic traits) might influence their parenting styles (e.g.,
Hart et al., 2017) which, in turn, could have an impact on children’
psychological distress.
Therefore, this study should be replicated by involving a more
representative sample, preferably using probability sampling. Thirdly,
in this study, we used self-report measures and, therefore other data
collection methodologies should be used (e.g., interviews or implicit
measures) to overcome defensive or self-representative biases. Re­
sponses could be affected by the participant’s emotional state at the time
of assessment. One last limitation is that parental overcontrol was
measured in terms of retrospective appraisal of parental attitudes and
behaviors perceived by participants during the first 16 years of life, and
this recall could be influenced/distorted by many factors (e.g., current
relationship with parents or current psychological distress).
Notwithstanding these limitations, the current study makes a
contribution to the body of knowledge about the role played by
parenting behaviors in the onset of psychological distress. Overall, the
results of this study suggest that having experienced an overcontrolling
mother favors in children the onset of a narcissistic vulnerability char­
acterized by an overreliance on others for their sense of self. Since the
body is the part of oneself more difficult to hide (and has central
importance for narcissists) and character is perceived as stable and
difficulty to change, it is plausible that shame towards these aspects of
the self leads to the onset of negative internal experiences. Clinicians
dealing with individuals with high vulnerable narcissistic traits could
help them reduce their psychological distress by targeting the underly­
ing narcissistic disturbance (Fjermestad-Noll et al., 2020; for different
treatment approaches see Kealy et al., 2017) and working on the level of
narratives relating to experiences of maternal overcontrol perceived
during childhood and feelings of shame expressed, especially when
connected to one’s own body. From a preventive perspective, in­
terventions could be aimed at promoting parenting that takes into
consideration the need for autonomy of children, allowing the latter to
experience “optimal frustrations” in order to prevent the structuring of
traits of narcissistic vulnerability.
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112848.
β
95 % CI
Lower
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Characterological shame → Depression
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Bodily shame → Depression
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Behavioral shame → Depression
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Depression
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Characterological shame → Depression
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Bodily shame → Depression
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Behavioral shame → Depression
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Depression
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Characterological shame → Anxiety
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Bodily shame → Anxiety
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Behavioral shame → Anxiety
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Anxiety
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Characterological shame → Anxiety
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Bodily shame → Anxiety
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Behavioral shame → Anxiety
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Anxiety
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Characterological shame → Stress
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Bodily shame → Stress
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Behavioral shame → Stress
Mother’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Stress
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Characterological shame → Stress
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Bodily shame → Stress
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Behavioral shame → Stress
Father’s overcontrol → Vulnerable narcissism →
Stress
Upper
0.053
0.026
0.151
0.012
0.001
0.040
− 0.018
− 0.089
0.017
0.089
0.048
0.246
0.025
− 0.001
0.090
0.006
− 0.001
0.022
− 0.008
− 0.047
0.010
0.042
− 0.001
0.132
0.020
− 0.019
0.078
0.025
0.011
0.060
− 0.005
− 0.056
0.037
0.070
0.026
0.185
0.009
− 0.009
0.043
0.012
− 0.001
0.034
− 0.003
− 0.028
0.022
0.033
− 0.001
0.102
− 0.016
− 0.087
0.022
0.023
0.011
0.061
0.019
− 0.022
0.086
0.099
0.054
0.248
− 0.008
− 0.044
0.011
0.011
− 0.001
0.034
0.009
− 0.010
0.050
0.047
− 0.001
0.143
previous findings by showing that some forms of shame are more central
than others in explaining the development of specific facets of psycho­
logical distress. In particular, behavioral shame did not significantly
mediate the link between vulnerable narcissism and depression, anxiety
and stress, whereas shame towards one’s body appears to be of central
importance. Individuals with narcissistic vulnerability rely on others’
judgement, and the body is the part least hidden from the gaze of others.
Indeed, vulnerable narcissism was found to be consistently associated
with body image-related concerns (e.g., Carrotte & Anderson, 2019),
and social appearance anxiety (Boursier & Gioia, 2020). Covering up or
concealing things one felt ashamed of having done (i.e., behavioral
shame) may be less difficult than presenting one’s own body as perfect in
any occasion, and this may explain why body shame (but not behavioral
shame) was positively associated with depression, anxiety and stress.
Our findings also showed that characterological shame plays a sig­
nificant role when it comes to depression. In line with this, a study
conducted on adult psychiatric outpatients found that both character­
ological and bodily shame mediated the relationship between narcis­
sistic vulnerability and suicidal ideation (Jaksic et al., 2017), which is a
diagnostic criterion for a major depressive disorder (American
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
5
S. Ghinassi et al.
Personality and Individual Di erences 232 (2025) 112848
CRediT authorship contribution statement
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Simon Ghinassi: Writing – original draft, Investigation, Formal
analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Giulia Fioravanti: Writing –
original draft, Supervision, Formal analysis. Silvia Casale: Writing –
review & editing, Supervision, Methodology, Formal analysis,
Conceptualization.
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
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