Narcissism and Exercise Addiction: The Mediating Roles of Exercise-Related Motives

Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Avi Besser, Maor Gabay and Gracynn Young
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Virgil Zeigler-Hill: Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309, USA
Avi Besser: Department of Communication Disorders/School for Sciences, Health and Society, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem 9101001, Israel
Maor Gabay: Department of Physical Education and Sports, Kaye Academic College of Education, Be’er Sheva 8414201, Israel
Gracynn Young: Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: The present research examined whether the associations that narcissistic personality features had with exercise addiction were mediated by particular motives for engaging in exercise in a large Israeli community sample ( N = 2629). The results revealed that each aspect of narcissism was positively associated with exercise addiction. Narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had similar positive indirect associations with exercise addiction through the interpersonal motive for exercise. However, these aspects of narcissism diverged in their indirect associations with exercise addiction through psychological motives, body-related motives, and fitness motives for exercise such that these indirect associations were positive for narcissistic admiration but negative for narcissistic rivalry. Narcissistic vulnerability had positive indirect associations with exercise addiction through body-related motives and fitness motives that were similar to those observed for narcissistic admiration. These results suggest that exercise-related motives may play important roles in the associations that narcissistic personality features have with exercise addiction. The discussion will focus on the implications of these results for understanding the complex connections between narcissism and exercise addiction.

Keywords: narcissism; exercise; motivation; addiction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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