Study: Stop Taking Those Selfies, New Wives, Because Your Narcissism Could Be Hurting Your Marriage
According to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Georgia and UCLA and published in Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, when the wife—especially in new marriages—is a narcissist, it can take a toll on the relationship. (For whatever reason, this is not the case if it is the new husband who is more than a little full of himself.)
Scientists studied nearly 150 newlywed coupes for the first four years of their marriage, checking in with them frequently with a series of assessments concerning everything from their self esteem and various personality traits to marital stress and satisfaction. At the conclusion, only one clear pattern had emerged: When the ladies, specifically, displayed narcissistic tendencies, both the husband and wife reported higher levels of marital discord.
For husbands and wives, wives’ total narcissism was associated with the slope of marital satisfaction and the slope of marital problems, such that marriages in which wives had higher levels of total narcissism were marked by greater declines in satisfaction and greater increases in problems … For husbands and wives, wives’ entitlement/exploitativeness was associated with the slop of marital satisfaction and marital problems, such that marriages in which the wives had higher levels of entitlement/exploitativeness were marked by greater declines in satisfaction and greater increases in problems.
Interestingly, though, self esteem was found to be wholly different than narcissism; higher levels of self esteem were associated with a higher overall quality of marriage—higher satisfaction and fewer problems. So if you and your to-be have got a solid sense of self worth and confidence, you’re good to go. But if you brides are self-obsessed, self-absorbed, vain jerks walking around with a superiority complex and a smartphone perpetually trained on yourself? Good luck.
{h/t: Fusion}
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