82 THE ALLEVIATION OF INNER ANXIETY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS THROUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING AND ASSISTANCE SERVICES

Abstract Background At present, college students are facing enormous academic, social, and economic pressures, which have led to a series of mental health problems. Anxiety is a common issue among college students. Studies have shown that early anxiety does not require medication intervention, and psychological counseling alone can have a good relieving effect. In order to alleviate the inner anxiety of college students, psychological counseling and assistance services have gradually become an important psychological intervention method. The research aims to explore the alleviating effect of psychological counseling and assistance services on the inner anxiety of college students. Methods The study recruited 100 college students who self-reported anxiety as experimental subjects and divided them into an experimental group and a control group, with 50 students in each group. The experimental group received psychological counseling and assistance services. Psychological counseling assistance services mainly focus on face-to-face individual psychological counseling, supplemented by group psychological counseling. Each student receives a 40 minutes psychological counseling session once a week, which includes topics such as cognitive restructuring, emotional regulation techniques, and stress management. The control group maintained their regular academic schedule without any psychological intervention. The study conducted self-assessment anxiety scale (SAS) scores and emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ) scores on all participants before and after the intervention. Results The scoring results of the scale before and after the experiment are shown in Table 1. According to Table 1, the SAS score of the experimental group was as high as 45.85 ± 6.58 points before the experiment, and decreased to 35.94 ± 4.69 points after the experiment, with a statistical difference between the two (P < 0.05). At the same time, the ERQ score of the group before the experiment was only 3.24 ± 0.68 points, which increased to 4.85 ± 0.57 points after the experiment, with statistical differences (P < 0.05). The SAS score of the control group did not decrease but instead increased, while the ERQ score remained almost unchanged. In the inter group comparison, there was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) in the SAS score and ERQ score between the two groups of participants after the experiment. Discussion The results show that students who received psychological counseling assistance services experienced a significant decrease in anxiety levels and a significant improvement in emotional regulation abilities. Through individual psychological counseling, college students can learn to recognize and regulate emotions, which is beneficial for enhancing their resilience in the face of academic and life pressures. Subsequent research can further explore the effects of psychological counseling interventions on brain function and psychological mechanisms, providing a new perspective for the in-depth development of psychological theory.