Trends of Narcissism among Medical and Non-medical Undergraduate Students of Lahore

Abstract

Background: Narcissism is a personality disorder that has an impact on interpersonal relationship with friends, family and colleagues. These individuals can be more shy, arrogant or over-sensitive. These traits are also present among normal individual. A lot of features of behaviour are still unknown.

Objective: To observe the narcissism score among medical and allied health students and the association of narcissism with their academic performance.

Study type, settings & duration: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Fatima Memorial College of Medicine & Dentistry, Lahore from March 2019 to October 2019.  

Methodology: In this cross-sectional study of six months duration the “Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI-40)” tool was administrated to 385 medical and allied health undergraduates. NPI scores were calculated. Comparative analysis was carried out. Multiple linear regression was also performed to observe the dependence of NPI score on demographic variables.

Results: NPI score of males were found to be higher (18.27) than females scores (14.66). The odds for NPI were 21.98 times higher in males as compared to females. Similarly, hostilities were 3.42 times at more risk of narcissism. Last exam percentage was significantly associated with narcissism score. (0.024)

Conclusion: Students of Allied health sciences exhibit more narcissistic traits than MBBS undergraduates. Institutes should encourage student counseling & mentoring sessions and they should have taught to overcome negative personality characteristics.