Psychological effect of confucianism on online self-disclosure among Chinese university students: the mediating role of life satisfaction

Confucian culture is an important traditional culture in China, which has a profound influence on the daily behavior and thinking of university students. However, it is not clear how Confucian culture affects Chinese university students' online self-disclosure behavior, and how it acts through the mediating role of life satisfaction. We use the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and the bootstrapping analysis method to explore the relationships among the three variables.According to an empirical analysis of 795 college students randomly collected from the internet questionnaire platform "Credamo", we have reached the following conclusions: (1) Tolerance- altruism in Confucianism positively predicts life satisfaction level(gamma=0.15, t=3.58, p<0.001); (2) Introspection (on affairs, on myself)in Confucianism positively predicts life satisfaction (gamma=0.23, t=3.71, p<0.001;gamma=0.24,t=3.93, p<0.001); but introspection on the others has no effect on life satisfaction(gamma=0.00,t=0.06, p>0.01); (3) Life satisfaction positively predicts less online self-disclosure (beta=0.12, t=2.88, p<0.01).(4) Life satisfaction can mediate between Confucianism(Tolerance- altruism, Introspection on affairs, Introspection on myself) and less online self-disclosure (delta(1)=0.02,t=2.25, p<0.01;delta(2)=0.03,t=2.28, p<0.01;delta(3)=0.03,t=2.33, p<0.01). Therefore, Confucian cultural inheritance and promotion play an important role in college students' psychological health and their perception of life happiness, and it will weaken the depth and breadth of online self-disclosure. Meantime, it can avoid college students 'excessive dependence on online communication and improve their satisfaction with face-to-face communication in real life.It can offer insights for the research on positive psychology and adolescent internet addiction behavior, and further promote in-depth research on the differential expressions of cultural values on online-self disclosure behavior in different countries.