From narcissistic personality patterns to social media addiction: Mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties and cognitive distortions

Today, social media platforms are diversified and the number of users is increasing day by day, social media overuse and addiction has become a common subject of research. In this study, two models predicting social media addiction are presented. In this context, the two dimensions of narcissistic personality disorder, the levels of predicting social media addiction of vulnerable and grandiose narcissism, were tested by means of SPSS PROCESS model analysis by means of emotion regulation difficulties and cognitive distortions. The study was conducted with 251 participants aged 15-65 with the Social Media Addiction Scale Adult Form, Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Emotional Difficulty Scale, Vulnerable Narcissistic Personality Inventory and Cognitive Distortions Scale. According to the findings, individuals who exhibit a vulnerable narcissistic personality feature have more emotional regulation difficulties, more cognitive distortions and more dependent behavior related to social media. Emotional regulation difficulties and the mediating role of cognitive distortions differ for both narcissism dimensions in social media addiction. This study, which deals with both dimensions of narcissistic personality patterns, may be an additional view for the literature, on the road to social media addiction, in the distinction between people who exhibit vulnerable and grandiose narcissistic personality traits.