This study was conducted to examine whether self-silencing and emptiness play a role as mediation variable in the relationship between covert narcissism and relationship addiction, and whether interpersonal orientation between emptiness and relationsh...
This study was conducted to examine whether self-silencing and emptiness play a role as mediation variable in the relationship between covert narcissism and relationship addiction, and whether interpersonal orientation between emptiness and relationship addiction has a moderating effect. To verify this research hypothesis, 433 adult men and women in their 20s or older (CNS), relationship addiction scale, self-silence (STSS), and interpersonal orientation scale (FIRO-B Short Form) were conducted using the snowball sampling method. SPSS 25.0 and Process Macro v3.5 were used for data analysis. The results of this study are as follows. First, as a result of correlation analysis between each variable, covert narcissism, self-silencing, emptiness, and relationship addiction showed significant positive correlations. On the other hand, interpersonal orientation showed a significant negative correlation with emptiness and showed a significant positive correlation with relationship addiction but did not show a significant correlation with covert narcissism, self-silencing. Second, covert narcissism significantly predicted relationship addiction. Third, in the relationship between covert narcissism and relationship addiction, self-silencing did not show a significant mediating effect, but emptiness showed a significant mediating effect. In other words, icovert narcissism did not significantly affect relationship addiction through self-silencing, and only when emptiness was mediated, it had a significant effect on relationship addiction. Fourth, self-silencing and emptiness played a role as significant sequential mediation variable in covert narcissism and relationship addiction. Finally, in the model where covert narcissism leads to relationship addiction through self-silencing and emptiness, interpersonal orientation was found to have a significant moderating effect in the indirect path in which emptiness affects relationship addiction. In other words, it can be seen that the higher the interpersonal orientation, the greater the tendency of covert narcissism to relationship addiction through self-silencing and emptiness. Based on these results, the significance, limitations, and suggestions for future research were discussed.
Key words: relationship addiction, covert narcissism, self-silencing, emptiness, interpersonal relationship orientation