Author(s)

Haitao Wang ^1,2

Affiliation(s)

¹ Psychology, Sofia University, Palo Alto, USA
² Arts, City University of Macau, Macau, China; Liaoyuan Vocational and Technical College, Liaoyuan, Jilin, China

Corresponding Author

Haitao Wang

ABSTRACT

In the face of the growing academic stress, job worries, and emotional distress experienced by college students, the existing model of mental health education faces issues like lack of variety in instructional approach, poor emotional penetration, and lack of active student participation, thus failing to cater to the psychological needs of college students. To improve the emotional counseling and aesthetic education effects of college mental health education, this article proposes the use of music therapy in the context of aesthetic education, building up an all-round "psychology course + music experience + campus activities + digital platform" model for college mental health education. By incorporating music listening, emotional relaxation training, music activities, and digital music companionship in the college mental health education system, students' emotional adjustment and psychological support are improved in multiple aspects.The experiment adopted a quasi-experimental research design, involving 90 college students and dividing them into an experimental group and a control group. In the experimental group, a one-semester music therapy was applied. The findings revealed that after the therapy, the anxiety score of the experimental group declined from 10.62 to 6.21, depression score reduced from 9.87 to 5.88, and the academic pressure score dropped from 3.92 to 2.71. At the same time, the psychological adaptability score improved from 3.41 to 4.12, while the emotional stability score improved from 3.36 to 4.08. Overall, all these indices were better than those in the control group (p<0.01). It can be seen that music psychology therapy based on aesthetic education is effective in relieving negative emotions among college students, and can increase their psychological adaptability and emotional stability. Therefore, the study has significance in promoting mental health education among college students and building campus psychological and aesthetic education.

KEYWORDS

Music psychotherapy; College mental health education; Aesthetic education; Emotion regulation; Quasi-experimental study

CITE THIS PAPER

Haitao Wang. Application of Music Psychotherapy in College Students' Mental Health Education from the Perspective of Aesthetic Education. Applied & Educational Psychology (2026). Vol. 7, No.1, 144-154. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/appep.2026.070116.

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