How common is narcissism among teens?

Young people’s narcissistic personality traits are steadily rising from the 1980s to the present. By 2006, one out of four college students agreed with the majority of the items on a standard measure of narcissistic traits; in 1985 that number was only one in seven. Jean Twenge, an associate professor of psychology from San Diego State University and author of Generation Me, has conducted fascinating research about kids’ narcissistic behaviors both on and off line.

Tracking over 37,000 college students’ personality profiles, Twenge finds a most troubling trend. Twenge’s national survey of 1,068 college students also had interesting results. Results found: 57% of college students admitted that social networking makes them more narcissistic and that their peers used social networking sites for self-promotion, narcissism and attention-seeking.

What’s more, over two-thirds of those adolescents surveyed said their generation was “more self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident and attention-seeking” than others in the past. Twenge’s results come on the tails of yet another troubling report -- a University of Michigan study of 14,000 college students released this year. Here are those results: College students today show 40% less empathy toward others than college students in 1980s and 1990s The researcher hypothesized that because there are fewer face-to-face interactions (largely due to the rise of net connection), empathy is also declining.

Put all of those studies together. Results from three large-scale, longitudinal studies lead by major researchers at major universities are finding a decrease in kids’ empathy and an increase in narcissistic, self-centered-like behavior. Now it is time to be concerned … very concerned.

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