Abstract Background The adaptation difficulties of urban residents are becoming increasingly prominent, with some individuals exhibiting problems such as social avoidance and decreased motivation, posing a challenge to traditional interventions. Low-carbon ecological city planning reorganizes green spaces and optimizes built environments. This provides new opportunities for community mental health support. However, research that translates this macro-level planning philosophy into targeted therapeutic protocols and verifies their effectiveness is still insufficient. To address this, a psychological intervention model integrating elements of an ecological city was developed. The purpose is to explore and evaluate the clinical effectiveness of this model in improving the well-being of urban residents experiencing such adjustment difficulties. Methods One hundred twenty residents with social adaptation difficulties were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups; both received community support, and controls additionally attended health-education sessions. The intervention group underwent a 24-week ecological-environment-integrated program. The intervention relied on community ecological facilities—such as local parks, green corridors, and public activity centers—and was delivered three times per week for 90 minutes per session. Core components included green-exposure therapy, which used horticultural engagement and nature observation to activate sensory processing and encourage emotional expression, as well as social-skills training in community public spaces involving structured role-playing and situational simulations. The study used the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP) to assess the severity of symptoms and social adaptive functioning of participants in both groups before and after the intervention. Results Across the 24-week observation period, no significant demographic or baseline clinical differences were found between the two groups. After the intervention, the intervention group showed significantly greater improvement in negative emotional experiences and social functioning compared to the control group. The mean PANSS negative-symptom score in the intervention group dropped markedly from 23.55 ± 4.28 to 16.81 ± 3.95, while the control group showed only a modest decline from 23.82 ± 4.51 to 21.53 ± 4.33. The between-group difference was statistically significant (p.01). For social functioning measured by the PSP, the intervention group improved from 54.71 ± 8.16 to 71.25 ± 7.92, whereas the control group showed only a slight increase from 55.03 ± 8.33 to 58.64 ± 8.05. This difference was highly significant (p.001). This indicates that interventions based on the ecological urban environment can accurately and effectively improve the core adaptive challenges faced by residents in such cities. Discussion Eco-city based psychological interventions can effectively offset traditional limits in improving mood and motivation. By embedding therapeutic activities within authentic community environments, the model reduces psychological resistance among participants and meaningfully strengthens the transfer of learned skills to everyday life. Moreover, such ecologically grounded engagement may cultivate a more sustainable sense of connection, motivation, and behavioral continuity for participants. Future studies should investigate the long-term stability of this model, its potential role in relapse prevention, and the integration of geographic information systems to create community mental-health mapping, thereby enabling more personalized and context-sensitive environmental-intervention strategies.
Miao Yu (Sun,) studied this question.