Innovation Series: Advanced Science (ISSN 2938-9933, CNKI Indexed)

Cultivating Psychological Resilience in University Students: Strategies from a Positive Psychology Perspective

Xiwen Yuan^1,* , Xiaokang Lin², Huaiju Zhou², Xiantang Tan²

¹ Student Affairs Division, Guangzhou Huashang College, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 511300 China

² School of Teacher Education, Guangzhou Huashang College, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 511300 China

Corresponding Author: Xiwen Yuan (yxw9990505@163.com)

Abstract: As higher education continues to expand and diversify, cultivating psychological resilience has become a core component of university mental health education. Psychological resilience refers not only to students' capacity to recover from stress and setbacks, but also to their ability to regulate cognition, mobilise resources, and sustain growth in adversity. Although universities have increasingly recognised the value of resilience education, current practice often remains fragmented, overly focused on knowledge transmission, and insufficiently supported by systematic relational networks. From the perspective of positive psychology, universities should strengthen students' coping capacity through positive emotional experiences, develop self-efficacy through the cultivation of personal strengths, improve support systems through positive relationships, guide students to reconstruct the meaning of setbacks, and consolidate confidence through incremental experiences of achievement. These pathways can shift mental health education in higher education from a predominantly problem-prevention model towards a positive-development model, thereby promoting students' mental health, adaptive capacity, and overall development.

Keywords: Positive psychology; University students; Psychological resilience; Mental health education; Resilience-building strategies

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