Struggling or Liberating? The Effects of Machiavellianism on Break-Up Distress

Peiyan Zeng, Wenjing Jin, Yibo Shi, Wanying Hu, Yaoguo Geng and Tingting Zhan ()
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Peiyan Zeng: School of Marxism, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Wenjing Jin: School of Marxism, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Yibo Shi: School of Marxism, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Wanying Hu: School of Marxism, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Yaoguo Geng: School of Marxism, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Tingting Zhan: School of Marxism, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-9

Abstract: Negative emotions caused by break-up are the key work of university students’ psychological intervention. It is important to explore the specific factors of break-up distress for university students’ psychological intervention. Therefore, we investigated 869 university students to examine the effect of Machiavellianism and psychological capital on break-up distress, as well as its gender difference. The results indicated that high Machiavellians experience more break-up distress. Moreover, through structural equation models, we found that as for female university students, psychological capital mediated the relationship between Machiavellianism and break-up distress. However, as for male university students, the mediation effect was not significant. It means that for female university students, psychological capital acted as the mechanism to connect Machiavellianism and break-up distress.

Keywords: Machiavellianism; break-up distress; psychological capital; gender difference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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