Leaving Scars? Post-Separation Psychological Adjustment in Individuals With Presumably Narcissistic Ex-Partners

It is often claimed that romantic relationships with narcissistic partners can lead to adverse outcomes for an individual, including damaged self-esteem and interpersonal trust or elevated cynicism. Romantic ex-partners of narcissistic individuals are also assumed to question their own judgment and partner choice, implying an increased desire for self-insight. An empirical foundation for such assertions is, however, lacking. The present study aims to elucidate aspects of psychological adjustment and personality traits in individuals who report a recent romantic relationship with a narcissistic partner. To this end, we compared self-esteem, interpersonal trust, cynicism, and the self-insight motive of individuals who label their ex-partner as narcissistic ( n = 104) with persons who classify their ex-partner as non-narcissistic ( n = 193). Furthermore, we asked all study participants ( N = 297) to rate their ex-partner’s trait levels of antagonistic narcissism and investigated how these relate to participants’ own self-esteem, interpersonal trust, and cynicism. Moreover, we explored whether relationship length moderates these associations. Independent t -tests revealed that individuals who label their ex-partners as narcissistic reported lower self-esteem, less interpersonal trust, and a stronger desire for self-insight than individuals with presumably non-narcissistic ex-partners. Correlation and multiple regression analyses further indicated significant associations between the ex-partners' level of antagonistic narcissism and participants’ self-reported interpersonal trust and cynicism. Relationship length did not moderate these associations, but had an independent effect on cynicism. Although the present study does not allow to draw causal conclusions, it represents an initial step towards exploring a so far largely neglected research domain. Possible implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.