Research on the application effects and optimization strategies of positive psychological intervention in social perception education

Abstract Background Social awareness education strengthens adolescents’ recognition and interpretation of social–emotional cues through role-playing, emotional awareness, and interactive feedback. Surveys indicate that 30% of middle school students show moderate–high anxiety, 25% exhibit low self-esteem or social withdrawal, and over 40% experience peer conflict and reduced classroom engagement, potentially impairing long-term learning motivation and social functioning. Positive psychological training improves self-efficacy, emotional regulation, and personal strengths, and has become key in school mental health programs. Therefore, this study embeds positive psychological interventions within social awareness education and quantitatively examines their effectiveness in reducing anxiety, enhancing self-esteem, and improving emotion management, providing evidence for optimizing routine school-based mental health support. Methods This study recruited 180 middle school students (aged 12 ~ 15) with notable social anxiety or adjustment difficulties, who were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 90) or a control group (n = 90). The intervention group received a 10-week positive psychological intervention, three times a week, mainly including peer collaboration tasks, emotion recognition exercises, and positive self-statement feedback. The control group only participated in regular class meetings and general psychology courses. The Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were used for assessment before intervention (T0), during intervention (week 5, T1), and after intervention (T2). Repeated measures ANOVA was used to test the interaction between group and time. Independent samples t-test was used to compare the two groups. The significance level was set at p.05. Cohen's d effect size was used to evaluate the size of the intervention effect. Results The changes in various indicators before and after the intervention in both groups are shown in Table 1. After 10 weeks, the intervention group showed a significant decrease in anxiety and a marked improvement in self-esteem and emotion regulation ability. The control group showed no significant changes. The SAS-A score decreased from 67.3 ± 6.1 at T0 to 51.2 ± 5.4 at T2 (p.001, d = 2.62). The RSES score increased from 21.8 ± 3.9 to 30.4 ± 3.7 (p.001, d = 2.24), and the ERQ emotion regulation efficacy improved by approximately 31% compared to T0 (p.001). Discussion Embedding positive psychological interventions in social perception education can significantly improve middle school students' emotional understanding, self-efficacy, and social interaction abilities, particularly in anxiety relief and self-esteem building. The results indicate that structured, group-based, and feedback-driven positive psychological training can serve as an important and routine strategy for school mental health education. Future research could further integrate digital physiological feedback, teacher-student interaction data, and peer support mechanisms to personalize and sustainably optimize intervention content, providing a more efficient pathway to enhance adolescents' psychological resilience and social adaptability. Funding No. 13XJC880004.