The purpose of this study is to verify the double mediating effect of shame and avoidant-distractive emotional regulation style in the relationship between covert narcissism and procrastination in early adulthood. To identify the relationships between variables, data were collected from 420 early adults aged 24 to 35. All study participants completed the Covert Narcissism Scale(CNS), Korean Version of the Experience of Shame Scale(K-ESS), Emotion regulation Checklist(ERC, only 9 questions are used to measure avoidant-distractive emotional regulation style), Pure Procrastination Scale(PPS) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D). The depression which can affect procrastination is assessed compute as covariate. A total of 415 responses were used in final analysis of this study, excluding 2 who submitted their responses twice and 3 who responded to questionnaires insincerely. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 and SPSS macro to confirm the relationship between variables, mediating effects and double mediating effect.
The results of this study are as follows. First, covert narcissism, shame, avoidant-distractive emotional regulation style, procrastination and depression had a statistically significant correlations. And covert narcissism significantly predicted procrastination after computing depression as control variable. Second, shame partially mediated the relation between covert narcissism and procrastination. Third, avoidant-distractive emotional regulation style partially mediated the relation between covert narcissism and procrastination. Finally, shame and avoidant-distractive emotional regulation style showed double mediating effect between covert narcissism and procrastination But, the direct effect of shame on procrastination was insignificant.
The implications of this study are as follows. the study represented that covert narcissism and procrastination had significant relation, but covert narcissism is trait that can not be easily changed. And shame only showed a significant impact on procrastination through avoidant-distractive emotional regulation style in double mediating effect. Therefore, the intervention in emotional regulation style can be therapeutic.