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. 2010 Jul 13;19(3):156–166. doi: 10.1002/mpr.318

Measurement non‐invariance of DSM‐IV narcissistic personality disorder criteria across age and sex in a population‐based sample of Norwegian twins

Thomas S Kubarych 1,✉, Steven H Aggen 1, Kenneth S Kendler 1, Sven Torgersen 1, Ted Reichborn‐Kjennerud 1, Michael C Neale 1
PMCID: PMC3694621  NIHMSID: NIHMS486915  PMID: 20632257

Abstract

We investigated measurement non‐invariance of DSM‐IV narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) criteria across age and sex in a population‐based cohort sample of 2794 Norwegian twins. Age had a statistically significant effect on the factor mean for NPD. Sex had a statistically significant effect on the factor mean and variance. Controlling for these factor level effects, item‐level analysis indicated that the criteria were functioning differently across age and sex. After correcting for measurement differences at the item level, the latent factor mean effect for age was no longer statistically significant. The mean difference for sex remained statistically significant after correcting for item threshold effects. The results indicate that DSM‐IV NPD criteria perform differently in males and females and across age. Differences in diagnostic rates across groups may not be valid without correcting for measurement non‐invariance.

Keywords: narcissistic personality disorder, twins, population‐based sample, item response theory, measurement non‐variance

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