Korean Journal of Addiction Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the mediation effects of fear of intimacy and loneliness on relationship between covert narcissism and SNS addiction tendency; a cross- gender analysis was also conducted. 365 college students were recruited and asked for survey questionnaire which measures their covert narcissism, fear of intimacy, loneliness, and SNS addiction tendency and the mediation effect was verified using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 statistical analysis. According to this study, fear of intimacy did not mediate in the impact of covert narcissism on SNS addiction tendency, but the loneliness had a significant mediation effect. In addition, the dual mediation effect of fear of intimacy and loneliness in the relationship between covert narcissism and SNS addiction tendency was significant. This study revealed a specific path that cover narcissism influences SNS addiction tendency by sequentially mediating the fear of intimacy and loneliness. Based on these results, implications and limitations of this study and suggestions for subsequent studies are discussed.