Effect of Core Self-Evaluation on Mental Health Symptoms Among Chinese College Students: The Mediating Roles of Benign and Malicious Envy

Abstract

Core self-evaluation is a universal personality trait. Previous studies have shown that there is a negative correlation between core self-evaluations and mental health symptoms. However, core self-evaluation is also a key variable for eliciting different kinds of envy, and envy has a close relationship with mental health symptoms. At present, little is known about how different kinds of envy affect the relationship between core self-evaluation and mental health symptoms. This study used malicious and benign envy as mediating variables and explored their mediating roles between core self-evaluation and mental health symptoms. We recruited 811 Chinese college students to complete the Core Self-Evaluation Scale, Benign and Malicious Envy Scale, and Symptom Checklist 90 Scale. The results showed that there was a negative correlation between core self-evaluation and mental health symptoms, and malicious and benign envy played roles in mediating it. Because malicious envy and benign envy positively predicted mental health symptoms, and core self-evaluations inhibited mental health symptoms by preventing these two kinds of envy. Moreover, the mediating effect of malicious envy was stronger than that of benign envy. [ Psychiatr Ann. 2019;49(6):277–284.]