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Previous research has shown that narcissistic traits such as exploitativeness, exhibitionism, and entitlement are associated with delinquency and aggression in childhood and adolescence. However, there is a paucity of longitudinal research examining these associations, and virtually no research examining other problem behaviors such as drug use and early sexual behavior. In this study, we extended previous research by testing whether two facets of narcissism, exploitativeness and superiority, assessed at age 14, predicted problem behaviors at age 16, while controlling for problem behaviors at age 14. We applied two-part count models to data from a longitudinal study of 674 Mexican-origin adolescents living in the United States followed over a two-year period from age 14 to 16. Adolescents with higher exploitativeness levels at age 14 were more likely to engage in drug use, commit delinquent acts, have sexual intercourse, and exhibit symptoms of conduct disorder at age 16, compared to adolescents with lower exploitativeness levels. Superiority had almost no associations with problem behaviors. Thus, exploitativeness may be one personality risk factor that underlies the development of multiple forms of problem behaviors in adolescence.

To date, there have been no long-term longitudinal studies of continuity and change in narcissism. This study investigated rank-order consistency and mean-level changes in overall narcissism and 3 of its facets (leadership, vanity, and entitlement) over a 23-year period spanning young adulthood (Mage = 18, N = 486) to midlife (Mage = 41, N = 237). We also investigated whether life experiences predicted changes in narcissism from young adulthood to midlife, and whether young adult narcissism predicted life experiences assessed in midlife. Narcissism and its facets showed strong rank-order consistency from age 18 to 41, with latent correlations ranging from .61 to .85. We found mean-level decreases in overall narcissism (d = -0.79) and all 3 facets, namely leadership (d = -0.67), vanity (d = -0.46), and entitlement (d = -0.82). Participants who were in supervisory positions showed smaller decreases in leadership, and participants who experienced more unstable relationships and who were physically healthier showed smaller decreases in vanity from young adulthood to middle age. Analyses of the long-term correlates of narcissism showed that young adults with higher narcissism and leadership levels were more likely to be in supervisory positions in middle age. Young adults with higher vanity levels had fewer children and were more likely to divorce by middle age. Together, the findings suggest that people tend to become less narcissistic from young adulthood to middle age, and the magnitude of this decline is related to the particular career and family pathways a person pursues during this stage of life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The multidimensional forced-choice (MFC) format is an alternative to rating scales in which participants rank items according to how well the items describe them. Currently, little is known about how to detect careless responding in MFC data. The aim of this study was to adapt a number of indices used for rating scales to the MFC format and additionally develop several new indices that are unique to the MFC format. We applied these indices to a data set from an online survey (N = 1,169) that included a series of personality questionnaires in the MFC format. The correlations among the careless responding indices were somewhat lower than those published for rating scales. Results from a latent profile analysis suggested that the majority of the sample (about 76–84%) did not respond carelessly, although the ones who did were characterized by different levels of careless responding. In a simulation study, we simulated different careless responding patterns and varied the overall proportion of carelessness in the samples. With one exception, the indices worked as intended conceptually. Taken together, the results suggest that careless responding also plays an important role in the MFC format. Recommendations on how it can be addressed are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are recent cohorts of college students more narcissistic than their predecessors? To address debates about the so-called "narcissism epidemic," we used data from three cohorts of students (1990s: N = 1,166; 2000s: N = 33,647; 2010s: N = 25,412) to test whether narcissism levels (overall and specific facets) have increased across generations. We also tested whether our measure, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), showed measurement equivalence across the three cohorts, a critical analysis that had been overlooked in prior research. We found that several NPI items were not equivalent across cohorts. Models accounting for nonequivalence of these items indicated a small decline in overall narcissism levels from the 1990s to the 2010s ( d = -0.27). At the facet level, leadership ( d = -0.20), vanity ( d = -0.16), and entitlement ( d = -0.28) all showed decreases. Our results contradict the claim that recent cohorts of college students are more narcissistic than earlier generations of college students.

Narcissism is an important and consequential aspect of personality, yet we know little about its developmental origins. Using data from a longitudinal study of 674 Mexican-origin families, we examined cross-lagged relations between parenting behaviors (warmth, hostility, monitoring) and narcissism (superiority, exploitativeness). Parental hostility at age 12 was associated with higher levels of exploitativeness at age 14, whereas parental monitoring at age 12 was associated with lower levels of exploitativeness at age 14. These effects replicated across three different parenting measures: child reports, spouse reports, and behavioral coding of parent-child interactions. None of the parenting dimensions was related to superiority, suggesting that parenting practices are more strongly related to the maladaptive than the adaptive component of narcissism.

The current study investigated the development of global and domain (academic, physical, same-sex peer relationship, opposite-sex peer relationship) self-esteem from age 10 to 16 in a sample of Mexican-origin adolescents. Participants' (N = 674) responses on the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ; Marsh, 2005) II-S showed moderate rank-order stability across four time points. In terms of mean-level change, global self-esteem and most forms of domain self-esteem decreased across adolescence; the one exception is that opposite-sex peer relationship self-esteem increased. As expected, there were individual differences in rates of change for all SDQ subscales. Most domain self-esteem subscales were concurrently related to global self-esteem (r's ranged from 0.18 to 0.87), but they did not predict changes in global self-esteem over time. Academic self-esteem had the strongest concurrent associations with global self-esteem. In general, there were no consistent gender differences in rank-order stability, mean levels, or change over time of global and domain self-esteem. These findings provide insight into the development of self-esteem in a rapidly-growing segment of the population of the United States.

Is Conscientiousness a useful construct across cultures? Using the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment data, we examined whether perseverance, a measure of Conscientiousness, was related to achievement and truancy across 62 countries/regions (N > 470,000). We investigated whether these relationships were linear or curvilinear in nature and assessed the utility of item-level information. After establishing partial metric invariance of the perseverance measure across various countries/regions and cultural regions, our findings unveiled that perseverance consistently predicted both math achievement and truancy, with predominantly linear associations. Notably, among the five items of the Perseverance scale, the item reflecting one's tendency to give up easily in the face of challenges emerged as the strongest and most consistent predictor of math achievement. Further, country-level correlations between perseverance and both math achievement and truancy displayed contradictory patterns compared to individual-level correlations, suggesting the presence of biasing factors in how people respond to these measures. Nonetheless, it appears reasonable to conclude that measures of Conscientiousness are pan-cultural predictors of achievement and truancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has followed a binary perspective in analyzing the effects of modernization and globalization, often assumed to produce the societal camps of both "winners" and "losers" in economic, cultural, and political terms. However, our understanding of these individual differences and the social groups that perceive themselves as disadvantaged by society is still limited. Hence, in contrast to previous findings we argue that the phenomenon may be better grasped by following a "pattern approach." Hence, in three different samples (total N = 2,566), we applied Latent Class Analysis to investigate subgroups representing individual differences in Perceived Societal Marginalization (PSM). Furthermore, we explored sociodemographic, personal-resource-related, attitudinal, and personality determinants of people's class membership probabilities to better understand the subgroups—or: patterns—we identified in substantive terms. In the discussion, we focus on the implications of our findings regarding societal cleavages, prejudice toward minority groups, and the support of far-right political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of response styles such as extreme response style (ERS) on trait estimation has long been a matter of concern to researchers and practitioners. This simulation study investigated three methods that have been proposed for the correction of trait estimates for ERS effects: (a) mixed Rasch models, (b) multidimensional item response models, and (c) regression residuals. The methods were compared with respect to their ability of recovering the true latent trait levels. Data were generated according to a unidimensional model with only one trait, a mixed Rasch model with two populations of ERS and non-ERS, and a two-dimensional model incorporating a trait and an ERS dimension. The data were analyzed using the same models as well as linear regression where the trait estimate is regressed on an ERS score and the resulting residual is considered the corrected trait estimate. Over all conditions, the two-dimensional model achieved the best trait recovery, though the difference to the unidimensional model was rather small. Mixed Rasch models were in general inferior to the other correction methods. When the trait and ERS showed no to weak correlations, ERS appeared to have a minor impact on trait estimation.

In large-scale educational surveys, a latent regression model is used to compensate for the shortage of cognitive information. Conventionally, the covariates in the latent regression model are principal components extracted from background data. This operational method has several important disadvantages, such as the handling of missing data and the high model complexity. The approach introduced here to identify multiple groups that can account for the variation among students is to conduct a latent class analysis (LCA). In the LCA, one or more latent nominal variables are identified that can be used to classify respondents with respect to their background characteristics. These classifications are then introduced as predictors in the latent regression. The primary goal of this study was to explore whether this approach yields similar estimates of group means and standard deviations compared with the operational procedure. The alternative approaches based on LCA differed regarding the number of classes, the items used for the LCA, and whether manifest class membership information or class membership probabilities were used as independent variables in the latent regression. Overall, recovery of the operational approach's group means and standard deviations was very satisfactory for all LCA approaches. Furthermore, the posterior means and standard deviations used to generate plausible values derived from the operational approach and the LCA approaches correlated highly. Thus, incorporating independent variables based on an LCA of background data into the latent regression model appears to be a viable alternative to the operational approach.

Vocational interest inventories are commonly analyzed using a unidimensional approach, that is, each subscale is analyzed separately. However, the theories on which these inventories are based often postulate specific relationships between the interest traits. This article presents a multidimensional approach to the analysis of vocational interest data, which takes these relationships into account. Models in the framework of Multidimensional Item Response Theory (MIRT) are explained and applied to a widely used German vocational interest inventory based on the RIASEC model, the AIST-R. MIRT models were more appropriate to describe the data than unidimensional models. It follows that responses to some items were not only influenced by the interest type they were designed to measure but also by another dimension. The advantages of MIRT models are discussed.

Three test construction strategies are described and illustrated in the development of the Verb Interest Test (VIT), an inventory that assesses vocational interests using verbs. Verbs might be a promising alternative to the descriptions of occupational activities used in most vocational interest inventories because they are context-independent, timesaving, and applicable across educational levels. Three test construction strategies are implemented and compared. The first construction method follows the rules of classical test theory (CTT), the second is within the framework of CTT as well but also takes gender differences in mean scores into account, and the third strategy is guided by item response theory (IRT) and controls for differential item functioning for men and women. The three VIT versions resulting from the different construction methods are compared regarding their construct and criterion validity. For practical use and career counseling, test development following the IRT approach seems most useful since it allows maximal occupational exploration and precise trait estimation. (Contains 7 tables.)

The development of the personality traits Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism is hardly understood. We theorize that the well-documented maturity principle applies to these traits. Decreasing levels of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and the antagonistic dimension "narcissistic rivalry" could be interpreted as reflecting maturation. The self-enhancing "narcissistic admiration" trait might remain unchanged. A sample of N = 926 German university students aged 18 to 30 (74% female) participated in a longitudinal study with 4 waves of measurement over 2 years, completing short and full-length measurement instruments. The preregistered analyses included latent growth curve models based on item factor analysis with partial measurement invariance. We accounted for the possibilities of contextual effects and nonlinear development and controlled the false discovery rate. All four traits showed very high rank-order stability (rs ranged from .74 to .81). In line with the maturity principle, mean levels of Machiavellianism and psychopathy decreased linearly (ds were -0.18 and -0.12). Moreover, model comparisons revealed systematic heterogeneity in Machiavellianism's linear growth curve, indicating that young adults differ from each other in the direction or steepness of their developmental paths. We also assessed self-esteem and life satisfaction. Linear changes in Machiavellianism were inversely related to linear changes in life satisfaction (r = -.39), making the mean-level decrease in Machiavellianism appear as adaptive. While findings concerning narcissism were inconclusive, this study provides incremental evidence that the maturity principle might apply to Machiavellianism and, potentially, to psychopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thurstonian item response model (Thurstonian IRT model) allows deriving normative trait estimates from multidimensional forced-choice (MFC) data. In the MFC format, persons must rank-order items that measure different attributes according to how well the items describe them. This study evaluated the normativity of Thurstonian IRT trait estimates both in a simulation and empirically. The simulation investigated normativity and compared Thurstonian IRT trait estimates to those using classical partially ipsative scoring, from dichotomous true-false (TF) data and rating scale data. The results showed that, with blocks of opposite keyed items, Thurstonian IRT trait estimates were normative in contrast to classical partially ipsative estimates. Unbalanced numbers of items per trait, few opposite keyed items, traits correlated positively or assessing fewer traits did not decrease measurement precision markedly. Measurement precision was lower than that of rating scale data. The empirical study investigated whether relative MFC responses provide a better differentiation of behaviors within persons than absolute TF responses. However, criterion validity was equal and construct validity (with constructs measured by rating scales) lower in MFC. Thus, Thurstonian IRT modeling of MFC data overcomes the drawbacks of classical scoring, but gains in validity may depend on eliminating common method biases from the comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]