Associations Between Conspicuous Self-presentation and Virtual Relationship Attachment: The Mediating Role of Narcissism

Yuqin Wang

doi:10.54254/2753-7064/2025.KM28327

Communications in Humanities ResearchOpen access

Associations Between Conspicuous Self-presentation and Virtual Relationship Attachment: The Mediating Role of Narcissism

Research Article

Open Access

Associations Between Conspicuous Self-presentation and Virtual Relationship Attachment: The Mediating Role of Narcissism

Yuqin Wang ^1*

¹ Moody Bible Institute

^*Corresponding author: ywang@moody.edu

Published on 23 October 2025

CHR Vol.89

ISSN (Print): 2753-7072

ISSN (Online): 2753-7064

ISBN (Print): 978-1-80590-459-5

ISBN (Online): 978-1-80590-460-1

Download Cover

Abstract

With the popularity of social media, the correlation between college students' Conspicuous self-presentation and their psychological and relationship outcomes has attracted attention, but the mechanism by which Conspicuous self-presentation affects Virtual Relationship attachment through narcissism remains unclear. This paper was based on an online survey of 100 college students in China in August 2025. It measured Conspicuous self-presentation (9 items), narcissism (18 items, based on NPI-13), and Virtual Relationship attachment (27 items). Gender, age, and average daily time on social media were controlled for. A structural equation model was used, and mediation was tested with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. The results showed that all three variables were significantly positively correlated. After incorporating narcissism, the direct effect of Conspicuous self-presentation on Virtual Relationship attachment remained significant but weakened, while the indirect effect was significant, indicating that narcissism played a partial mediating role. Based on this, this paper suggests that colleges and universities jointly intervene in narcissism and Conspicuous self-presentation in media literacy and psychological counseling, reduce overt showing, and strengthen offline relationship support.

Keywords:

Narcissism, Conspicuous Self-Presentation, Virtual Relationship Attachment, Social Media, University Students

View PDF

References

[1]. Ding, Q., Zhang, M. M., & Zhang, Y. X. (2019). Narcissism and social network sites addiction: The mediating role of conspicuous self-presentation. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology.

[2]. Vanhoffelen, G., et al. (2025). Me, My Self-Presentations and I. Media Psychology.

[3]. Buffardi, L. E., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Narcissism and social networking websites. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 34(10), 1303-1314.

[4]. Kim, J., & Lee, J. E. R. (2011). The Facebook paths to happiness. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

[5]. Morf, C. C., & Rhodewalt, F. (2001). Unraveling the paradoxes of narcissism: A dynamic self-regulatory processing model. Psychological inquiry, 12(4), 177-196.

[6]. Mehdizadeh, S. (2010). Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

[7]. Xiao, X., Wang, W., & Wu, M. (2023). Selfie behavior and psychological motivations in social media. Advances in Psychology, 13(8), 3575–3583.

[8]. Rucker, D. D., & Galinsky, A. D. (2008). Desire to acquire: Powerlessness and compensatory consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(2), 257-267.

[9]. Young, K. S. (1999). Internet addiction: Symptoms, evaluation, and treatment. Innovations in Clinical Practice.

[10]. Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2011). Online social networking and addiction—a review of the psychological literature. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8(9), 3528–3552.

[11]. Bányai, F., Zsila, Á., Király, O., et al. (2017). Problematic social media use: Results from a large-scale nationally representative adolescent sample. BJPsych Open, 3(2), 127–132.

[12]. Wang, S., Cai, Y., Zhu, R., Li, S., Liu, X., & Gong, R. (2022). Development of social network addiction tendency scale for adolescents and its reliability and validity. Chinese Journal of General Practice, 20(2), 324–326.

[13]. Ryan, T., Chester, A., Reece, J., & Xenos, S. (2014). The uses and abuses of Facebook: A review of Facebook addiction. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 3(3), 133-148.

[14]. Balcı, Ş., & Yeles Karaman, S. (2020). Social media usage, self-presentation, narcissism, and self-esteem as predictors of Instagram addiction: An intercultural comparison. Erciyes İletişim Dergisi, 7(2), 1213-1239.

[15]. Ding, Q., Zhou, Z., & Zhang, Y. (2016). Social network sites use and addiction among college students: The mediating role of positive self-presentation and the moderating role of relational-interdependent self-construal. Psychological Development and Education, 32(6), 683-690.

[16]. Krizan, Z., & Herlache, A. D. (2018). The narcissism spectrum model: A synthetic view of narcissistic personality. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(1), 3-31.

[17]. Raskin, R., & Terry, H. (1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 890-902.