Maladaptive Rumination Mediates the Relationship between Self-Esteem, Perfectionism, and Work Addiction: A Largescale Survey Study

Bernadette Kun, Róbert Urbán, Beáta Bőthe, Mark D. Griffiths, Zsolt Demetrovics and Gyöngyi Kökönyei
Additional contact information
Bernadette Kun: Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, H-1064 Budapest, Hungary
Róbert Urbán: Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, H-1064 Budapest, Hungary
Beáta Bőthe: Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal H2V 2S9, Canada
Mark D. Griffiths: Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK
Zsolt Demetrovics: Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, H-1064 Budapest, Hungary
Gyöngyi Kökönyei: Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, H-1064 Budapest, Hungary

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-17

Abstract: Background : Empirical evidence suggests that low self-esteem and high perfectionism are significant personality correlates of work addiction, but the mechanisms underlying these relationships are still unclear. Consequently, exploring cognitive mechanisms will help to better understand work addiction. For instance, rumination is one of the under-researched topics in work addiction, although it may explain specific thinking processes of work-addicted individuals. The purpose of the study was to test the mediating role of maladaptive rumination (i.e., brooding) in the relationship between personality and addiction. Methods : In a largescale cross-sectional, unrepresentative, online study, 4340 adults with a current job participated. The following psychometric instruments were used: Work Addiction Risk Test Revised, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, and Ruminative Response Scale. Results : It was found that self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, and self-esteem had both direct and indirect relationships with work addiction via the mediating effect of maladaptive rumination. The two paths involving brooding explained 44% of the direct relationship. Conclusions : The study demonstrated that brooding type of rumination as a putatively maladaptive strategy explains why individuals characterized by low self-esteem and high perfectionism may have a higher risk of work addiction. The results suggest that cognitive-affective mechanisms in work addiction are similar to those found in other addictive disorders.

Keywords: work addiction; workaholism; self-esteem; perfectionism; rumination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7332/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7332/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:7332-:d:424764

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().