What makes a violent mind? The interplay of parental rearing, dark triad personality traits and propensity for violence in a sample of German adolescents

Abstract

Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy are socially aversive personality traits that are strongly linked to the propensity of violence. A central determinate of aggression and violence is parental rearing. Interestingly, while the origin of the development of Dark Triad is not yet entirely understood, next to genetic and environmental factors, literature points towards an influence of parenting styles to the development of dark traits. Therefore, in a sample of 1366 9th grade students (mean age 14.89,), we assessed the interplay between parental rearing, dark triad traits, observation of violence among peers and their propensity for violence. The sample has a good representativeness on school types. Results reveal a positive association between the experience of parental rejection by both parents and punishment as well as parental control and overprotection and Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. Parental emotional warmth was associated negatively with Machiavellianism and psychopathy while no significant association with narcissism was seen. In a path model, parental rearing, dark triad traits and observation of violence among peers significantly contributed to the propensity of violence. However, differences between the experienced parenting behaviour of mothers and fathers should be noted. Both rejection and overly harsh punishments by fathers and emotional warmth by mothers have no significant influence on the dark triad. It is interesting that the effects regarding maternal parenting behaviour are stronger overall than the effects regarding paternal parenting behaviour. These results underline the importance of parental rearing on the development of Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy and suggest a significant role of parental rearing and the dark triad traits on propensity for violence in adolescents. Parenting trainings and family interventions may be a promising starting point to prevent antisocial behavior linked to the dark triad and to prevent violent behavior in future generations