 There are many parenting styles as there are people, but many of these styles can be divided into broad categories such as narcissistic, authoritative, and authoritarian. Today we're focusing on narcissistic parenting. What is a narcissistic parenting style? Narcissistic parents tend to be very possessive over their children, and this parenting style is sometimes also referred to as helicopter parenting. Narcissistic parents often feel threatened by or even envious of their child's growing independence. Consciously or unconsciously, these parents believe that the child is there to fulfill the parent's wishes and needs. You might think of the certain pushy kind of soccer mom or pageant parent. This parental behavior can have far-reaching effects on the child. 1. Self-blame Children of narcissistic parents often think that they are the problem. As the parents only pay attention to their child's mistakes and their own problems, the children start blaming themselves. This can also function as a self-preserving mechanism to hold that hope. They think, if I fix myself, the situation will get better. If I do well, my parents or carers will be nicer to me. Children that have been raised with a narcissistic style often have trouble dealing with their feelings and can get very emotional over minor occurrences. 2. Insecure Attachment You might have heard of the attachment theory, which attempts to describe the dynamics of interpersonal relationships between humans. A large part of the attachment style is determined by the relationship children develop with their caretakers. There are three main types of attachment, secure, anxious or insecure, and disorganized. Narcissistic parenting often results in insecure attachment, which has two subtypes. An insecure avoidant style is characterized by an avoidant nature where children think, I'll never risk letting myself get hurt again. The other subtype is an insecure anxious attachment, which is characterized by an attitude that more or less chases after the secure connection and causes children to think, why don't they like me? Why won't anyone pay attention to me? 3. Extreme Emotional Independence Some children might react to narcissistic parenting by abandoning emotional attachment altogether. They grow into solitary distressing adults and have difficulty forming close personal connections. 4. Extreme Nurturing Some children might even go the complete opposite way, turning into extremely nurturing individuals. This could possibly be caused by an unconscious desire to vicariously experience the care and warmth they didn't receive themselves. 5. PTSD Children that have experienced an extreme form of narcissistic parenting often struggle with these results for life in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder. They might have invasive thoughts of emotional abuse, experience severe emotional numbness, or undergo other symptoms of PTSD. This effect is particularly prevalent among children that also experience physical abuse. 6. Becoming Narcissistic This is an extreme case of, if you can't beat them, join them. Some children raised by narcissistic parents react by thinking, I'll make sure I become so good at everything that nobody can make me feel unimportant again. People who do this go to extremes to focus on themselves and their own achievements, becoming narcissistic themselves. And those are six major effects of narcissistic parenting. Have you ever experienced narcissistic parenting? How do you think it affected you? If you'd like, you can share your story in the comments below. Thank you for watching, and if you like this video, don't forget to subscribe and check out our website and social media.