ISSN: 0970-938X (Print) | 0976-1683 (Electronic)

Biomedical Research

An International Journal of Medical Sciences

Research Article - Biomedical Research (2018) Volume 29, Issue 6

The evaluation and effect of mental health of students based on ideological and political education intervention

Zhixue Wang and Chi Chen*

Beihua University, Jilin, Jilin, PR China

*Corresponding Author:
Chi Chen
Beihua University
Jilin, PR China

Accepted date: December 28, 2017

DOI: 10.4066/biomedicalresearch.29-17-3400

Visit for more related articles at Biomedical Research

Abstract

At present, the probability of criminal cases in our country is on the rise, which has a great relationship with the lack of mental health intervention. Therefore, the use of ideological and political education for students' mental health intervention and evaluation was proposed. In this paper, the concept and function of mental health education and ideological and political education were expounded in detail, and then a two-month experiment on ideological and political education was carried out in 2016 freshmen of S University. Experiments were carried out by using experiments such as Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Self-Rated Health Measurement Scale (SRHMS), mini version international psychiatric interview (M.I.N.I), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Irrational Beliefs Scale (IBS). Before and after the intervention of SDS, the total score of intervention group were significantly different from control group (t=3.84, P<0.05; t=-3.26, P<0.05). Before and after the intervention of IBS, there was no significant difference between the total score of the intervention group and the control group. (t=1.86, P>0.05; t=0.20, P>0.05). The intervention of Ideological and political education has an effect on students' depression.

Keywords

Students, Mental health, Ideological and political education, Intervene

Introduction

With the deepening of the reform, the state and the society's demand for high-quality talent is becoming increasingly higher. In addition, with the growth of the national economic strength, more and more attention is paid to the education of the country, and more and more resources are put into education every year [1]. Correspondingly, the number of students in our country each year shows a steady growth trend. Taking the annual college graduates as an example, according to the China Education Online Statistics, in the ten years from 2006 to 2016, the number of college graduates increased from 4,130,000 to 7,650,000. A large number of young students have entered the school education, which has provided sufficient human resources for China's modernization, and has brought immeasurable role for the modernization of our country [2]. However, the large student groups in the country bring problems along with the sufficient talent pool, such as college graduates employment problems, the lack of teaching resources and teaching quality decline [3]. With the emergence of these "hardware" problems, students' "software" problems are gradually revealed in the process, that is, students' mental health problems are becoming the focus of attention [4].

Since 2000, there have been many vicious campus criminal cases around the country, including the tragedy in Chuxiong Zixi middle school’s student dormitory in 2010, the poison case in Fudan University in 2013, Yao jiaxin hit and murder case in 2010 and Zhang Chao with boyfriend’s robbery murder case in Yunnan University in 2009. The criminal cases of these students involve in all stages of secondary school students, with shocking cruelty. In addition, the various media communication of information society has attracted wide attention and discussion in society [5]. Due to the rapid development of information technology, students expand their own vision and experience through a variety of network platforms as well as a variety of induction by negative even wrong information [6]. Adolescent students' outlook on life, values and outlook on the world have not eventually formed, so they are vulnerable to individualism, money worship and other erroneous ideas. Besides, due to the lack of traditional education methods in the ideological education of students, the double superposition has triggered a series of mental health problems [7]. Mental health education and ideological and political education has both connections and differences, the difference lies in the theoretical basis, the two specific educational tasks, methods of education, the relationship is not isotropic; it is the two fundamental educational object, educational objectives, educational methods, educational content with the same or related [8]. Ideological and political education is rich in content, including four aspects: ideological education, political education, moral education and psychological education. Ideological education is the precursor, political education is the core, moral education is the key point and psychological education is the foundation [9]. Therefore, this paper evaluated and studied the effect of mental health education intervention of students in ideological and political education at all stages, and validated the effect and function of ideological and political education on students' mental health intervention.

Students' Mental Health and Ideological and Political Education

Students mental health education

World Health Organization (WHO) has defined health: health not only refers to the individual body without disease and defects, but also requires individuals to have a good psychological quality and social adaptability [10]. Based on this, it can be seen that the so-called health refers to the physical, mental and social balance between the three states, physical and mental health in the same important position, both are indispensable [11]. The definition of physical health is relatively simple, it generally refers to the body without disease or defects, but the definition of mental health is more complex. From the current point of view, the definition of mental health is generally divided into broad and narrow. Broadly speaking, mental health is a broad, efficient, satisfactory and sustained mental state. It can respond positively to the surrounding environment and things, and have a strong vitality, and can effectively play out their own physical and psychological potential [12].

The rise of education reform in the last century has spawned students' mental health education. Mental health education is a new concept of education, which combines modern psychology, pedagogy, physiology and physiology and many other disciplines theory, it is a combination of many disciplines and educational practice products [13]. At the beginning of the last century, mental health education was first born in the United States, and its founder Davies suggested that school teachers should counsel students weekly, so as to help students to create and maintain a good mental health status. In the last century from 80s to 90s, before the formation of China's concept of mental health education, the "CPC Central Committee on Further Strengthening and improving the moral education work of a number of opinions" documented by the government has mentioned for the first time to carry out mental health education for students of different stages. After decades of development, China has been in the stage of all-round development of students' psychological health education; China has achieved remarkable results in the mental health education in various theoretical research, teaching staff and related activities [14]. In addition to the widespread concern of the current public and the actual needs, the students' psychological health education and scientific and reasonable intervention methods have become the focus and the attention of research.

Students ideological and political education

Ideological and political education is one of the most important teaching contents in our country's education and teaching, and its teaching implementation is generally concentrated in the Colleges and universities [15].

In our current ideological and political education, based on the students' learning and living reality, a reasonable way of education and teaching is used to fully develop the overall quality of students [16]. In the education of ideals and beliefs of the students, the socialist core value system is used as the instruction of teaching, and the students' life outlook, values and world outlook are guided to establish the practical ideal of life according to the needs of the country and oneself; the patriotism education is based on the national spirit of learning, training and education, so as to understand the history of the party, cultivate students' hard work and obedience to the collective spirit and consciousness; the ideological and moral education is based on the civil code of ethics to cultivate students' spirit of service and dedication. Through the education of students' ideals and beliefs, patriotism and moral, students can be civilized and polite, honest and trustworthy, hardworking and brave, optimistic positive and selfimprovement in any time and place. Therefore, in the ideological and political education in our country, it is necessary to pay attention to the cultivation of students' complete and perfect personality and social interaction [17]. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Ideological and political education intervention on students' mental health.

Method

Research objects and tools

In the process of studying the mental health status of students under the intervention of ideological and political education, the main research objects were college students, and the experiment was carried out in the 2016 freshmen of S University. The main contents of this experimental experiment were carried out in the early people who had psychological problems of anxiety, depression or suicide. After the start of the experiment, according to the relevant standards, the crowd with psychosocial disorder was chosen, and then the details of the experiment were informed to the freshmen who had psychological and emotional disorders; with the consent of these students, the students who agreed to participate were grouped. The selection criteria for participating in the experiment are shown in Table 1. This research was approved by the Ethical Committee of Beihua University according to the declaration of Helsinki promulgated in 1964 as amended in 1996, the approval number is 2016003. The methods of this study refer to the literature [18].

Content Standard Remarks
Anxious PHQ>5 The above four criteria only meet a standard can participate in the experiment
Depressed GAD>7  
Suicide risk Screening for high, moderate and low risk suicide risk by M.I.N.I  
General health Physical health is in a state of sub-health, SRHMS score less than 274 points  

Table 1. Experimental population screening criteria.

During the intervention, various tools were used. The main forms of the experiment were as follows:

(1) Demographic statistics scale, main statistics includes student name, gender, age, place of origin, nationality, date of birth and related family situation.

(2) Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the experimental use of the Chinese version. It was mainly used to assess the degree of depression of students. The degree of depression was assessed based on the frequency of occurrence of the various symptoms. According to the questionnaire result, the probability of suffering from depression was about 88%.

(3) Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), the experimental use of the Chinese version. The table was mainly used to assess the degree of anxiety symptoms according to the use of domestic and international situation; the table was a good reflection of patients with anxiety and depression symptoms. The main content of GAD-7 involved seven items.

(4) Self-Rated Health Measurement Scale (SRHMS), the table was a self-rating scale designed by Xu Jun. The table includes physical health, mental health and social health with a total number of 48 items. The table was proved to be of good reliability and validity in the population of our country after long-term test and use.

(5) Mini version international psychiatric interview (M.I.N.I) was a diagnostic questionnaire designed by Professor Sheehan and Lecrubier. In this paper, one of the modules of suicide was chosen to screen students' suicide.

(6) Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) was a self-rating scale for depression measured by William. In this experiment, students filled themselves, and the data was used to analyse the students' subjective feelings of depression.

(7) Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) was a self-rating scale designed by Zung to assess subjective feelings of patients. The statistical indicators were divided by the total score and the standard points, and the total score was 40 points, the upper limit of the standard score was 50 points. Through the total score and standard changes, the symptoms of student anxiety were analysed.

(8) Irrational Beliefs Scale (IBS) was based on the adaptation of China's CBI in SPB and BS by Li Zhanjiang and others. The table had a total of 22 entries, and 5 level scoring was used. In all three factors, the score of all the entries included in the factor was the factor score.

During the experiment, the intervention group was guided by psychological education, team therapy, psychological counselling, counselling and treatment. The whole experiment was completed in the comprehensive monitoring and evaluation, which was convenient for the analysis of the successful experience and shortcomings of the ideological and political education in the process of students' psychological health. Throughout the course of the experiment, the frequency of the intervention was conducted once a week for a total of eight months, starting from October 17, 2016 to December 17. The control group adopted mental health education and publicity. The detailed information is shown in Table 2.

Service object Psychological health education and intervention Service form Service provider
Intervention group Establish mental health files Ideological and political education, individual, collective intervention Psychological counselling staff; mental health professionals
Ideological and Political Education: mental health education and counselling
Mental health clinic
Case management and follow-up
Control group Laws and regulations and information publicity School lectures, publicity, debate, hotline School psychological counselling service
Mental health knowledge, skill education
Education of mental health risk factors

Table 2. The framework of ideological and political education on students' mental health.

The intervention group mainly carried out the elective course in the name of mental health education, and all the members of the intervention group carried out mental health intervention. The intervention plan was as follows: The results of the screening assessment were given back to all the team members in a timely manner. The mental education of the intervention group was divided into six groups according to the way of about 18 people. The interactive education was carried out in the interactive group lectures, which included teaching, exploring, training and guiding the psychological adjustment. An interactive group lecture was held once a week for 2 h. The subjects of the event are shown in Table 3.

Theme Objective
Establish contract The team members to understand each other and set up a team, the formation of the team contract
Ideal and future Guide the team members to understand their own professional, determine the gap between the profession and the ideal, clarify the professional tendency
Happiness Feel and experience the beauty around you to increase your happiness
Attention emotion Recognize, acknowledge, and deal with inner emotions
Irrational emotion recognition Irrational emotion recognition, recognition and adjustment
Interpersonal relationship Correct understanding of their interpersonal relationships and attitudes
Communication and communication Listen and respond to criticism
Learning style Exchange learning experience
Self-knowledge From the psychological aspects of their own advantages and disadvantages
Goodbye, my friend To deal with the separation mood, group psychological training evaluation

Table 3. Subject and purpose of mental health intervention.

After the experiment, the SDS, SAS and IBS scales were tested again. The results of the test were analysed and evaluated. The results were compared between the control group and the intervention group to verify the effect of the ideological and political education on the mental health of the students. The data collected by the experimental device were analysed and processed by the statistical software SAS9.3. The results of the treatment are described as mean ± standard deviation.

Results

224 students were selected for the experiment and divided into the intervention group and the control group, with 112 cases in each group. Students in both groups had small difference in gender, ethnic and age gap. The control group of students in the proportion of local students was significantly lower than the intervention group. The difference was statistically significant. Students in the intervention group completed all the contents of ideological and political education. 97 students in the intervention group and 103 students in the control group completed the two scales before and after experiment. The demographic characteristics of the intervention group and the control group are shown in Table 4.

Demographic characteristics Intervention group Control group χ2/t P
Quantity Proportion Quantity Proportion
Gender Male 69 71.43% 68 66.13% 0.649 0.420
Female 28 28.57% 35 33.87%    
Nation Han 94 96.43% 96 93.55% 0.354 0.552
Other 3 3.57% 7 6.45%    
Source place Local 27 27.38% 12 12.10% 7.835 0.005
Non-local 70 72.62% 91 87.90%    
Age 20.33 ± 0.72 20.33 ± 0.82 0.000 1.000      
Total 97 103          

Table 4. Demographic characteristics of intervention group and control group.

In the course of the experiment, the intervention group and the control group were compared, so the results were also compared between the intervention group and the control group. The first was the Anxiety Self-Rating Scale (SAS) statistical analysis results, as shown in Table 5. After two months of intervention, the results of anxiety in the intervention group were lower than those before intervention. The difference was not statistically significant. In the comprehensive analysis, the difference between the two groups before and after the intervention was obvious, the score of the control group increased and the intervention group decreased, which was statistically significant.

Group The number of Baseline Follow-up t P Follow-up-baseline
Average ± standard deviation Average ± standard deviation
Intervention group 97 37.31 ± 5.67 36.29 ± 5.59 -1.01 0.31 -1.04 ± 9.39
Control group 103 40.58 ± 7.20 43.04 ± 5.05 3.65 0.00 2.46 ± 7.51

Table 5. SAS statistical results before and after intervention.

Table 6 was the SDS statistical results before and after intervention of the intervention group and the control group, from the table, it can be seen that before intervention, SDS statistical results were higher than the intervention group. After that, the SDS results of the intervention group showed a downward trend compared with before intervention, while the statistical results of the control group increased on the whole. From the statistical point of view, the total score, mental and physical disorders and psychological changes before and after the intervention of SDS had a significant significance, while the remaining children were not statistically significant.

Category Baseline assessment The difference
Intervention group Control group t P Intervention group Control group t P
Psychotic symptoms 4.25 ± 1.15 4.60 ± 1.15 -2.16 0.0316 -0.47 ± 1.69 -0.73 ± 1.21 1.19 0.2358
Psychomotor disorders 4.57 ± 1.10 5.27 ± 1.37 -4.07 <0.001 -0.07 ± 1.44 0.48 ± 1.54 2.62 0.0095
Somatization disorder 14.10 ± 3.20 15.60 ± 3.16 3.35 0.001 0.81 ± 4.40 1.23 ± 3.60 -0.73 0.4639
Psychological disorders of depression 15.01 ± 3.47 16.57 ± 3.69 0.0025 0.0025 -2.80 ± 6.31 3.02 ± 8.12 -5.79 <0.001
The total score 37.93 ± 7.25 42.05 ± 7.76 3.84 0.0002 -5.54 ± 15.76 1.77 ± 15.89 -3.26 0.0013

Table 6. Statistical results before and after the intervention of SDS.

Table 7 was the statistical results of IBS before and after the intervention, it can be seen from the table that the scores of the control group before the intervention and the scores were higher than the intervention group. There was no statistically significant difference between the absolute requirement and the total score, and the other items were statistically significant. The results of follow-up assessment showed that the total score and the sub-items showed a decreasing trend, and the scores of the total score and the sub-scores were not statistically significant.

Category Baseline assessment The difference
Intervention group Control group t P Intervention group Control group t P
General review 12.53 ± 3.39 13.64 ± 3.67 2.21 0.03 -0.23 ± 3.21 -0.42 ± 3.32 0.4 0.69
Low frustration tolerance 29.01 ± 4.62 30.60 ± 5.08 2.03 0.04 -0.86 ± 5.09 -1.29 ± 5.50 0.56 0.58
Absolute requirement 18.14 ± 3.56 18.19 ± 3.52 0.09 0.93 -0.57 ± 3.12 -0.21 ± 3.64 -0.7 0.48
The total score 59.48 ± 9.00 62.43 ± 9.71 1.86 0.07 -1.65 ± 8.56 -1.93 ± 9.78 0.2 0.84

Table 7. Statistical results before and after IBS intervention.

According to the statistical results of SAS, SDS and IBS three, it is necessary to intervene the mental health of college students in our country at present. The results of this experiment show that, on the whole, the intervention of Ideological and political education on students' mental health is effective. The effect of intervention on depression is better, but the effect of the intervention is not obvious, but the statistical results of irrational beliefs are not statistically significant, indicating that the effect is not obvious.

Discussion

With the rapid development of society and economy in our country, the education of our country has entered the stage of popular education. When teaching system provides adequate personnel for the country, the consequences brought by the lack of students' mental health education are increasingly prominent. Therefore, in this paper, the important ideological and political education courses in the university were combined, and the mental health status of the students was intervened and evaluated to verify the effect of intervention. In this paper, a two-month mental health intervention for 224 freshmen of 2016 in S University during the period from October 17, 2016 to December 17, 2016 was conducted through the policy of ideological and political education intervention. The results of the final experiment show that it is necessary to carry out mental health intervention to the students in our country. The results of the ideological and political education intervention experiment also show that the intervention is effective, in which the effect of depression is obvious, and the effect of anxiety intervention is worse, the statistical results of irrational beliefs are not statistically significant, and the intervention time may be related.

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by Jilin Province Department of Education in 2016 Humanities and Social Sciences “college students employment psychological problems and intervention mechanism research” and Jilin Educational Science Planning Ideological and Political Research special issue of universities' ideological and political education of college students Dong bei kang lian research into the spirit. (Grant No. GS17024).

References