243. Physical education for college students to alleviate anxiety depression mechanism research

Abstract Background At present, the problems of anxiety and depression among college students are becoming increasingly prominent. They not only harm their mental health, but also seriously affect their academic performance and social adaptation. Although traditional psychological intervention has good effects, it has the problems of high cost and limited participation. Physical education teaching, as a commonly offered course in colleges and universities, provides a potential carrier for promoting emotional regulation and psychological recovery in natural situations. However, most of the existing research focuses on the general psychological benefits of physical exercise. Empirical discussions on how structured and curriculum-based physical education can systematically alleviate anxiety and depression among college students through its internal mechanisms are not yet in-depth. Therefore, a set of physical education teaching plans integrating the concept of psychological intervention was designed in the research, aiming to deeply analyze the alleviating effect and internal action path of physical education teaching on the anxiety and depression of college students. Methods The research first integrated theories of exercise physiology, positive psychology and group dynamics to develop a 16-week structured physical education teaching curriculum, which was conducted once a week. A total of 80 college student volunteers with mild to moderate tendencies of anxiety and depression were recruited for the study and randomly divided into an experimental group (n = 40) and a control group (n = 40). The experimental group participated in the structured physical education teaching course, while the control group maintained the original regular physical education course. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9‌ were used before the start, after the end and one month after the end of the course. PHQ-9) Evaluate symptoms of anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) were used to evaluate the potential mediating variables. Results After the intervention, the experimental group was significantly superior to the control group in terms of the improvement of emotional symptoms and the enhancement of psychosocial functions. The total score of GAD-7 in the specific experimental group was (6.1 ± 3.5), which was significantly lower than that in the control group (9.5 ± 4.1) (p<.05). The total score of PHQ-9 in the experimental group was (7.8 ± 4.2), which was significantly lower than that in the control group (11.2 ± 5.0) (p<.05). The psychological resilience score of the experimental group was (68.3 ± 7.2), which was significantly higher than that of the control group (60.1 ± 8.4) (p<.05). The perceived score of social support in the experimental group was (38.5 ± 5.8), which was also significantly higher than that in the control group (32.9 ± 6.5) (p<.01). Discussion In the research results, structured physical education teaching can effectively alleviate the anxiety and depression of college students. The score of the anxiety and depression scale of the experimental group after intervention was significantly lower than that of the control group, and there were significant improvements in psychological resilience and perception of social support at the same time. Future research can integrate multi-dimensional technologies such as neuroendocrine and brain imaging to more precisely clarify the mechanism of physical and mental interaction, thereby promoting personalized and precise integrated education practices of physical education and psychology.