186. A study on the emotional counseling function and mental health education strategies of ideological and political education in colleges from a psychological perspective

Abstract Background As mental health issues among college students become increasingly prominent, traditional ideological and political education (Ideo-Political Education) models are facing challenges. While such education inherently holds potential for emotional support and psychological counseling, empirical evidence for systematically integrating psychological techniques to enhance its counseling efficacy remains scarce. Accordingly, based on the theories of empathy, cognitive restructuring and emotional regulation, this study developed and tested an Ideo-Political intervention program integrated with emotional counseling techniques. It aimed to assess the program’s effects on alleviating students’ emotional distress, enhancing their psychological resilience and improving life satisfaction, as well as explore a practical path for the collaborative education of Ideo-Political Education and mental health education. Methods A quasi-experimental design was adopted. A total of 200 freshmen and sophomores from four randomly selected ideological and political courses at a university were divided into an experimental group (n = 100) and a control group (n = 100). The experimental group received a structured emotional counseling module embedded in the 16-week Ideological and Moral Cultivation and Legal Basis course, covering empathy discussion, emotional expression training, cognitive restructuring exercises, group situational simulation, reflective writing and teacher feedback, while the control group received regular instruction. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item scale (PHQ-9), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were used for assessments at pre-test (T0), mid-test (8th week, T1) and post-test (16th week, T2). Repeated measures analysis of variance (p<.5) was applied for data analysis. Results Core results are presented in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, the GAD-7 score of the experimental group was 5.2 ± 3.0, significantly lower than that of the control group (8.1 ± 3.5, p<.001), indicating effective alleviation of generalized anxiety symptoms. Meanwhile, the experimental group’s PHQ-9 score was 4.8 ± 2.8, versus 7.5 ± 3.2 in the control group, with a statistically significant difference (p<.001). For positive indicators, the experimental group achieved significantly higher CD-RISC (72.4 ± 8.1) and SWLS (25.1 ± 4.3) scores than the control group (p<.001), reflecting enhanced psychological resilience and improved life satisfaction. Discussion After a 16-week ideological and political education intervention integrated with psychological techniques, college students showed significant improvements in emotional state, psychological resilience and life satisfaction. The experimental group exhibited marked reductions in anxiety and depression, with greater improvements than the control group. Results indicate that systematically incorporating structured psychological techniques into ideological and political education effectively enhances its functions of emotional counseling and psychological support. Future research should verify the model’s applicability across different courses and groups, optimize the intervention program, and evaluate its long-term effects via follow-ups to improve the ideological and political education system.