Will children of narcissists have personality disorders?
Unfortunately yes. It is no different than a child growing up in an abusive household, or a child that comes from divorced parents. Children immulate adults. People don't realize that children retain a lot of memory from their very younger years. We are what we are in the environment we grow up in. If you feel this is happening to your child please seek out therapy for the child and the parents. If one of you is a narcissist and they refuse treatment then it's time to leave. Once you have decided to have children then you have the responsibility of protecting that child and giving them the best start in life you can. Good luck Marcy It's true that children of any personality disordered parent will suffer effects from that, it is not necessarily true that they themselves will develop that same (or other) personality disorder. There are so many variables involved, including other people in their environment, that one can only say that they will probably benefit from some therapy; but not that they are doomed to be their disordered parent. **** I'm an adult child of a genuinely NPD father who also happened to be my minister. I would say that there's no way for the child of a narcissist to avoid emotional problems, but personality disorders fall into the most serious classification of psychological disruption. It's far more likely that behavioral problems and neuroses will result than it is that the child will become classifiable with a borderline, antisocial, narcissistic, or other personality disorder.