The purpose of this study was to determine the mediating effect of rejection sensitivity relationship between covert narcissism and SNS addiction tendency in middle school students. For the purpose, the covert narcissism, SNS addiction tendency, rejection sensitivity questionnaires were administered to 460 students from middle schools located in Gumi city, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and the collected data were, for hypothesis test, analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and SPSS macro program. The hypothetical model was tested by using descriptive statistics analysis, frequency analysis, correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, and bootstrapping.
The results are as follows: First, there were significant association among the covert narcissism, SNS addiction tendency, rejection sensitivity. Second, the covert narcissism had direct effect on SNS addiction tendency. Third, the rejection sensitivity had partial mediating effect on relationship between covert narcissism and SNS addiction tendency. This study shows that the covert narcissism has effect on SNS addiction tendency in middie school students. It was also verified that the rejection sensitivity have partial mediating effects, on relationship between covert narcissism and SNS addiction tendency in middle school students. The limitation of the study and recommendations for future studies are discussed based on these results.