Are parents making their kids narcissists? 

To answer this question, researchers at Ohio State University checked-in with 565 children and their parents four times over a year and a half. The children's ages ranged from 7 to 11.

They surveyed the parents and children when they visited. they found that parents who thought their child was "more special than other children" tended to have more narcissistic children.

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"Children believe it when their parents tell them that they are more special than others. That may not be good for them or for society. Rather than raising self-esteem, overvaluing practices may inadvertently raise levels of narcissism," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State.

Lead author Eddie Brummelman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, said parents probably mean well by telling their children they're special, but the study showed this practice fosters narcissism, not high self-esteem.

Researchers also measured how much parents overvalued their children by asking how much they agreed with statements like: "My child is a great example for other children to follow".

Bushman said having a narcissistic child is different from having a confident child.

He said people with high self-esteem think they're as good as others, while narcissists think they're better than others.

Parental warmth and encouragement may be a better strategy than inflating the ego, the study found.

Youths that said they were often told they were loved by their parents were more likely to show high self-esteem but not narcissism.

Parents are not solely to blame for narcissism in their children, the study authors said.

"Like other personality traits, it is partly the result of genetics and the temperamental traits of the children themselves," said the study.

The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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