The relationship between narcissism and spiritual well-being in Roman Catholic seminarians

Narcissism in young adults has steadily risen over the past 25 years. Much of this has been caused by over-protective and over-indulged parents, school systems that promote an inflated sense of self-esteem in children, and mass media that leads young people to believe everyone should be a celebrity. As young adults, Roman Catholic seminarians are not immune to the narcissism of this culture. Seminary faculty have observed higher levels of selfishness in some seminarians. Literature also presents reports of highly narcissistic priests. Narcissism is an impediment to healthy personality functioning and to a healthy priestly ministry. This study investigated the relationship between narcissism and spiritual well-being in Roman Catholic seminarians. The hypothesis was that there would be a correlation between the two. The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin, & Hall, 1979, 1981; Raskin, & Terry, 1988) and the Spiritual Well-Being Scales (SWBS; Ellison, & Paloutzian, 1982; Ellison, 1983) were used to measure the correlation between narcissism and spiritual well-being. A sample of 201 seminarians from four U.S. seminaries was used. It was hoped that a significant negative correlation between narcissism and spiritual well-being would be found. If this had occurred, future studies could have been performed to determine if and how growth in spiritual well-being could lower narcissism. However, the study found no significant relationship. Most seminarians tend to be low in narcissism and high in spiritual well-being. Still, 16.9% of seminarians had NPI scores that were equal to or greater than the scores of their lay peers. This is cause for concern. Additional analyses found that seminarians who participated in a summer educational enrichment program had NPI scores that were marginally lower than those who did not participate. Differences between mean NPI scores for younger and older seminarians were found not to be statistically significant. The results of this study will add to current literature since there are no other studies published on narcissism and/or spiritual well-being in Roman Catholic seminarians. A better understanding of narcissism and ways of lowering it can help ensure a healthy future priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church.