Proactive coping mediates the relationship between the narcissism phenotypes and psychological health

• Seungju Hyun

  Korea Military Academy

• Xyle Ku

  Department of Psychology, Seoul National University, and Department of Psychology, Korea Military Academy

Although the relationship between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and psychological health is widely accepted, little is known about whether and how coping strategies explain this relationship. We examined the mediating role of proactive coping in this relationship, with a sample of 280 participants from five colleges in Korea. We used four parallel multiple mediation models, and controlled for the indirect effects of coping flexibility, self-esteem, and covariates (age and gender). Results show that grandiose narcissism predicted higher life satisfaction and lower perceived stress, whereas vulnerable narcissism exhibited the opposite pattern, and all of these relationships were mediated by proactive coping. Overall, our results highlight the critical role of proactive coping in the prediction of psychological health among narcissists.

1. Seungju Hyun, Korea Military Academy
   Department of Psychology

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