Narcissistic personality disorder influences relationships and beliefs in different life spheres.

We aimed to measure narcissism among Bulgarian adults by establishing validity of two scales measuring narcissism, specifying some social and demographic factors and differentiating narcissistic features.

One hundred and thirty-four Bulgarians (17–62 years old, M = 31; SD = 11) were examined with two scales measuring narcissism. Higher score on Narcissistic personality disorder scale from the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 correlated positively (r = .346; P < .001) with higher score on A. T. Beck and J. S. Beck's scale measuring Narcissistic beliefs from Personality Belief Questionnaire that indicated their validity.

No significant gender differences in narcissism were found, with female participants prevailing in the sample (n = 118). Family status (FPDQ−4(4,128) = 0.593; pPDQ-4 = 569; FPBQ(4,128) = 0.295; pPBQ = .881), occupational status – student, employed or unemployed (FPDQ−4(4,128) = 0.593; pPDQ−4 = .569; FPBQ(4,128) = 0.295; pPBQ = .881), secondary or university education (tPDQ−4(112) = 1.809; pPDQ−4 = .073; tPBQ(112) = 1.338; pPBQ = .184), and the length of work experience did not differentiate narcissism (RPDQ−4 = .168; tPDQ−4 = −1.853; pPDQ−4 = .066; RPBQ = .063; tPBQ = −0.681; pPBQ = .497). Advance in age was related to diminished levels of narcissism (RPDQ−4 = .21; R2PDQ−4 = .044; BPDQ−4 = −0.034; tPDQ−4 = −2.463; pPDQ−4 = .015). Higher narcissism was related to the belief of being a special person (70.8%) and to the perceptions of other people as being envy of one's personality–own achievements (60.9%).

Narcissistic personality disorder is rare in the studied Bulgarian adult population – 4.5% of the subjects (n = 6) had the highest levels of narcissism on both scales that corresponded to the proportion of 6% prevalence of lifetime narcissism in USA, according to Stinson et al.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.