Has there been a recent increase in adolescent narcissism ? Evidence from a sample of at - risk adolescents ( 2005 – 2014 )

a r t i c l e i n f o The present study examined the level of overall self-reported narcissism in Two approaches to analyze scores in relation to year of data collection were employed. There were no significant changes in narcissism from either measure across the study time period. The implications of these findings for considering current generational trends in narcissism and the need for further research on developmental influences of narcissism are discussed. In the past decade, the prevalence of narcissism in subsequent generations of adolescents and young adults has been the focus of some debate. One claim is that narcissism has been on the rise in statistically significant and societally important ways among college students since the 1980s 2008a), whereas another argument is that no such appreciable change in narcissism or " narcissism epidemic " exists (e.g., Trzesniewski, Donnellan, & Robins, 2008). Moreover, some evidence suggests that age is a better predictor of narcissism than generation, with narcissism declining with age after adolescence or young adulthood (Roberts, Edmonds, & Grijvala, 2010). Research on narcissism has been extended to at-risk adolescents and has noted meaningful individual differences in terms of its relation with constructs like aggression (e. Narcissism has also demonstrated predictive utility for later delinquency among a community sample of adolescents (Barry, Frick, Adler, & Grafeman, 2007) and for behavioral problems within a residential setting (Herrington, Barry, & Loflin, 2014). In addition, underscoring its behavioral relevance in youth, narcissism has been associated with increased aggression after negative performance feedback in a laboratory study of early adolescents (Thomaes, Bushman, Stegge, & Olthof, 2008). Evidence also suggests that narcissism is not uniformly high, at least among at-risk adolescents, and instead falls along a relatively normal distribution (Barry, Pickard, & Ansel, 2009). Based on its correlates, the apparent meaningfulness of individual differences in narcissism, as well as the potential relevance of narcissistic tendencies for both adap-tive and maladaptive development during adolescence (Hill & Lapsley, 2011), narcissism prior to adulthood deserves further examination. The most recent decade provides a compelling context in which to examine potential short-term shifts in adolescent narcissism. According to Twenge, Miller, and Campbell (2014), this time period has been marked by increasing opportunities to express individualism and declining social support, both of which contribute to ever-increasing levels of narcissism among young adults. On the other hand, the findings of Trzesniewski and colleagues suggest that there has …