In response to the escalating mental health concerns among college students and the evolving societal landscape, the purview of ideological and political education has expanded beyond ideological instruction to encompass the nurturing of positive psychology. This study aimed to investigate the effects of innovative reforms in ideological and political education on college students’ positive psychology.

A cohort of 100 students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, were selected from a specific university. The distribution comprised 30 freshmen, 20 sophomores, 30 juniors, and 20 seniors, including 60 male and 40 female students. Self-made psychological crisis assessment questionnaires were employed, revealing that 5 students experienced severe psychological crises, 5 faced moderate crises, 10 exhibited mild crises, and 80 reported a favorable mental state. The students received bi-weekly ideological and political education sessions over a span of six months. The impact of the intervention was assessed through statistical analysis using SPSS23.0 based on the questionnaire results.

The psychological crisis has generally improved, with 10 people feeling good and 10 people feeling mild psychological crisis. There was no statistically significant correlation between students’ family situation and scores. The P-values of questionnaire scores before and after intervention treatment were all less than 0.01, which was statistically significant.

The innovation of ideological and political education has a positive promoting effect on the mental health of college students through the education of psychological knowledge and psychological counseling.