The mediating role of coping styles between the relationship of narcissistic rivalry, admiration, vulnerability with addiction and psychological symptoms

Narcissism has been conceptualized with vulnerable and grandiose dimensions and has been associated with well-being and psychopathologies. Vulnerable narcissism was reported in association with neurotic personality and psychopathologies, while the grandiose dimension presented more contradictory findings. Based on the contradictory findings of grandiose narcissism, admiration and rivalry dimensions were conceptualized (Back et al., 2013). While admiration is associated with behaviors and cognitions such as gaining status, gaining appreciation and leadership; rivalry is more associated with results such as threat perception, anxiety, fear of failure, and envy. Considering the relationship between personality traits and various behaviors, it is important to examine the coping behaviors that emerge in these traits. Within the scope of this research, it was aimed to understand the mediating role of narcissistic personality dimensions of coping behaviors in the prediction of alcohol and substance addiction risks, social media addiction and psychological symptoms based on the theory of Lazarus and Folkman (1984). It is aimed to better understand narcissism, to increase the use of rivalry and admiration dimensions in clinical perspective, and to conduct a study specific to Turkish culture. In the study, the data of 279 participants between the ages of 18-45 were analyzed through hierarchical regression analyzes and Model 4 in the PROCESS plugin developed by Hayes. Admiration dimension negatively predicted depression level (ß= -.14, t= -2.22, p=.028) and behavioral disengagement behavior (ß= -.22, t= -3.47, p=.001) regarding psychological health, and also found to be positively associated with denial behavior (ß= .17, t= 2.94, p=.004). The mediation hypothesis for admiration could not be confirmed. For rivalry dimension; alcohol (ß= .22, t= 3.77, p<.001) and substance abuse risks (ß= .20, t= 3.37, p=.001) and social media addiction (ß= .18, t= 3.18, p =.002) was found to be positively correlated. The vulnerability positively predicted anxiety (ß= .26, t= 4.57, p<.001) and depression (ß= .15, t= 2.20, p=.029) levels. As a result, behavioral and mental disengagement, planning, expressing emotions and positive reinterpretation behaviors played a mediating role in narcissistic rivalry and vulnerability's prediction of social media addiction and stress-anxiety-depression levels.