Psychological resilience in the association between community-engaged rural art practice and university students’ well-being and distress: a cross-sectional study

Community-engaged rural art practice (CERAP) combines rural field investigation, community interaction, cultural interpretation, collaborative design, creative intervention, and reflective learning. This cross-sectional study examined whether CERAP was associated with psychological well-being and distress and whether psychological resilience statistically accounted for indirect associations. A convenience sample of 625 university students from three universities in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China (61.6% female; age 18–23 years, M = 20.19, SD = 1.26) completed a 12-item study-specific CERAP measure, the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, and the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). Split-sample factor analyses supported a unidimensional CERAP score (Cronbach’s α = 0.773; confirmatory CFI = 0.997, RMSEA = 0.009). CERAP was positively correlated with resilience ( r = 0.43) and well-being ( r = 0.44) and negatively correlated with depression ( r = − 0.44), anxiety ( r = − 0.24), and stress ( r = − 0.43). Adjusted regressions showed corresponding associations, and bootstrap analyses identified significant indirect associations through resilience, accounting for 36.0–79.7% of the total associations across outcomes. These findings provide preliminary evidence of cross-sectional associations; the convenience sample and observational design preclude causal or temporal inference. They support further evaluation of community-engaged art/design curricula in relation to student well-being.