INTERVENTION EFFECT OF RESEARCH-BASED PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING ON ADOLESCENTS’ MENTAL HEALTH DURING THE COVID-19 EPIDEMIC

Background: This study aims to explore the intervention effect of research-based psychological counseling on adolescents’ mental health during the COVID-19 epidemic. Subjects and methods: From May to July 2020, 160 young students were selected from 5 middle schools in Shandong Province of China as the participants of this study and were randomly divided into the experiment and control groups with 80 members in each group. The routine in-campus education of health knowledge related to the epidemic was conducted in the control group, while the experiment group received both the routine education and the intervention of psychological counseling in combination with outdoor exercise. Results: No significant difference exists between the experiment and control groups (P>0.05) before the intervention, but the scores of the experiment group in anxiety and depression are lower than those of the control group (P<0.05) after the intervention; the PSQI score of the experiment group is significantly lower after the intervention, suggesting that the effect on the experiment group is better than the control group (P<0.05); the scores of the experiment group in psychological resilience and its 5 dimensions are higher than those of the control group (P