DOI:10.6129/CJP.202212_64(4).0002
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2022, Vol.64, No.4, 445-470

The Effect of Friendship Alienation on Mental Health: The Buffering Effects of the Chinese “Yuan” and “Fen” Beliefs

Shih-Chen Huang(Department of Psychiatry, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital), Chin-Lung Chien(Department of Psychology, Soochow University)

Abstract

Friendship alienation is a common dilemma experienced by many Chinese people in life. It especially has negative impacts on the mental health of the alienated party, which cannot be ignored. The role of “yuanfen” ( 緣分 ) in adapting to relationship dilemmas has already been put forward and yuanfen has recently been subdivided into beliefs in “yuan” (緣) and “fen” (分). However, yuan and fen beliefs were for the most part hypothesized in the past to have respective effects on psychological adaptation. This paper first proposes the hypothesis that yuan and fen belief can work together (interact) to buffer the negative effects of friendship alienation on mental health. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the roles of the yuan and fen beliefs following friendship alienation, including the effect of “friendship alienation” on “mental health” and the moderating role of yuan and fen beliefs. In this study, adults aged 18 and above were adopted as subjects. Data was collected through online questionnaires. Participants were requested to fill out assessment scales measuring friendship alienation experiences, their yuan and fen beliefs, sense of loneliness, satisfaction with life, subjective happiness, etc. The results show that compared with those without experiences of friendship alienation, people who had experienced estrangement from their friends within two years indeed showed poorer mental health. The research results with greater significance show that 1) If the yuan and fen beliefs operate simultaneously, they play a buffering role on the negative impacts of alienation experience on mental health. If they both operate independently however, they do not have a buffering effect on the negative impacts of the alienation experience on mental health; and 2) It is worth noting that in situations where belief in yuan is low, and the belief in fen is higher, the more likely an experience of alienation would jeopardize subjective happiness and satisfaction with life. Overall, the joint operation of the beliefs in yuan and fen may play a buffering role in the negative effects of friendship alienation. Nevertheless, it is also worth noting that under specific circumstances, yuan and fen do not always have positive effects on negative relationships as mentioned in the preceding literature. Finally, the research results were targeted for further discussion. The research limitations and directions were also indicated.

Keywords: mental health, friendship, friendship alienation, yuanfen, psychotherapy