Abstract Background In the current stage of higher education, college students face multiple challenges such as academic pressure, job competition, and social adaptation. Psychological resilience has become an important factor affecting their mental health and development. According to statistics, 30% of college students experience emotional distress such as anxiety and depression during their time in school. The improvement of psychological resilience is not only related to individual mental health, but also closely related to social and cultural factors such as cultural identity and social support. The western Yunnan region has abundant cultural resources of ethnic minorities, carrying unique cultural identity values. Based on this, designing ethnic aesthetic education courses can promote individuals' psychological adjustment and growth in the face of pressure. Therefore, from the perspective of cultural identity, this study explores the impact mechanism of aesthetic education courses for ethnic minorities in western Yunnan on the psychological resilience of college students. Through psychological scale assessment and qualitative analysis, the role of such courses in improving emotional regulation, social adaptation, and stress resistance is evaluated. The aim is to provide empirical evidence for universities to construct a psychological health education path that integrates ethnic cultural characteristics. Methods A total of 120 full-time college students aged 18-22 were included in the study. Participants who meet the criteria are randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, with 60 people in each group. Adopting a randomized controlled experimental design. The experimental group received a 12-week intervention in cultural identity oriented aesthetic education courses for ethnic minorities in western Yunnan, enhancing participants' cultural perception and identity through immersive aesthetic experiences and cultural practices. The control group maintained their original learning and living pace during this period and did not participate in any structured aesthetic education or cultural experience courses. The CD-RISC and SDS were used to evaluate the two groups before and after intervention, with statistical significance levels set at p.05. Results The psychological resilience score of the experimental group after intervention was 68.92 ± 7.65, which was significantly higher than the pre intervention score of 58.34 ± 8.21 (p.05). At the same time, the psychological resilience score of the experimental group after intervention was significantly higher than that of the control group (p.05). The SDS standard score of the experimental group before intervention was 55.60 ± 6.84, which decreased to 48.12 ± 7.20 after intervention, significantly better than the control group's 50.42 ± 6.08 (p.05), indicating that the experimental group had a better effect on reducing depressive symptoms. Discussion Based on the framework of cultural identity theory, this study explores the internal mechanism of cultural immersion based aesthetic education in promoting psychological resilience and emotional health of college students through a 12-week intervention in ethnic minority aesthetic education courses. The results showed that the experimental group of college students who received structured aesthetic education course intervention showed a significant improvement in their psychological resilience level and a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. Funding No. 2026J1074; No. BC25044.
Jiangli Li (Sun,) studied this question.