PTSD Symptoms: Romantic Relationships with Individuals Who Have Narcissistic and Psychopathic Traits

Abstract

Research has only begun to explore the mental health implications of being involved in romantic relationships with individuals who have narcissistic and psychopathic traits. Current research indicates that involvement in romantic relationships with individuals who have narcissistic or psychopathic traits may contribute to posttraumatic symptomology as well as other mental health difficulties. This study recruited 1,294 voluntary participants who self-reported being in these relationships to take a comprehensive survey measuring their partner's personality traits and their own symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to the relationship.

Instruments such as PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, the Informant Five Factor Narcissism Inventory and the Modified Self-Report Psychopathy Scale were used to investigate the associations among PTSD, partner vulnerable narcissism, partner grandiose narcissism and partner psychopathy. The study also explored the impact of mediating and moderating variables such as the presence of various forms of abuse, manipulative tactics, and previous abuse history such as childhood abuse, to determine whether partner personality traits were still unique and significant predictors to PTSD symptoms related to the romantic relationship when these other variables were taken into account.

Multiple linear regressions revealed that both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism were significant and unique predictors of PTSD symptomology for those who had already left the romantic relationship, even when variables such as previous abuse, physical abuse and abuse frequency were accounted for, and that grandiose narcissism was the largest predictor of posttraumatic symptomology. These partner traits were more predictive than abuse frequency, previous abuse, or physical abuse which were also significant predictors. Manipulative tactics such as jealousy induction and love bombing showed smaller but significant effects, indicating that they were also predictive of posttraumatic symptomology. Correlation analyses also revealed that jealousy induction, love bombing and stonewalling were all significantly correlated with all three partner traits, while gaslighting was significantly correlated with grandiose narcissism.

For individuals who were still in the romantic relationship with individuals with narcissistic or psychopathic traits, only psychopathy, abuse frequency and previous abuse remained significant predictors, with psychopathy and abuse frequency being the largest predictors. Furthermore, additional regression analyses exploring which facets of PTSD dimensions were most affected by these partner personality traits revealed that grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism, and psychopathy were most predictive of PTSD intrusion and avoidance symptoms specifically, with grandiose and vulnerable narcissism being the most significant predictors of avoidance and intrusion symptoms. For PTSD cognition and mood symptoms, grandiose narcissism was the most significant predictor, followed by vulnerable narcissism which was also significant. Psychopathy was not a significant predictor for PTSD changes in cognition and mood symptoms. For PTSD hyperarousal symptoms, all three predictors were significant but vulnerable narcissism showed the largest effect size, while grandiose narcissism had the smallest effect size for this facet of PTSD.

This study establishes an important and highly significant association between both grandiose and vulnerable forms of partner narcissism and PTSD symptomology, clarifies the association between partner psychopathy and PTSD symptomology, and offers further understanding regarding which PTSD diagnostic categories may be most closely associated with which partner personality traits.