McDaid and colleagues have pointed out that investments in adolescent mental health interventions yield substantial returns, with health and economic benefits reaching up to 24 times the cost (17). For young adults, interventions that teach coping skills for common psychological problems—such as procrastination, perfectionism, low self-esteem, test anxiety, and stress—may reduce the incidence of specific mental health disorders, while also offering more accessible and non-stigmatizing care options for youth (18, 19).

In recent years, research on urban and campus ecosystems has increasingly converged, focusing on how environmental factors contribute to youth mental health. Collins et al. (20) suggested that constructing green spaces and interactive natural environments can significantly enhance the mental well-being of urban residents and students. Enhancing youth mental health requires a holistic ecological perspective that integrates individual growth environments, social support systems, and educational resources. Studies from Western countries, notably in Europe and North America, have emphasized the “developmental” and “ecosystemic” nature of psychological education, arguing that multi-level collaboration and support—from individuals and families to society—can effectively prevent psychological issues in youth, strengthen emotional regulation, self-efficacy, and social connectedness, and significantly reduce the prevalence of internalizing behavioral problems such as depression and anxiety (20). Buxton et al. (9) further confirmed that natural soundscapes in urban environments have positive effects in alleviating anxiety and improving mental health, underscoring that campus environment design should integrate ecological landscapes and experiential practices to create physical spaces conducive to mental well-being.

In recent years, domestic research has made significant progress in the following three areas:

The foundational theoretical curriculum should include basic knowledge of mental health, psychological assessment techniques, and crisis intervention strategies. Courses such as College Student Mental Health Education can serve as required modules. These courses focus on constructing theoretical frameworks and enhancing students’ sensitivity to psychological problems as well as their preliminary identification skills (13, 14).

Research-practice-oriented courses emphasize experiential learning through contextualized activities such as psychodrama, group sandplay, and mindful walking. These enable students to acquire psychological adjustment skills through hands-on experiences. Gao (11) found that group psychodrama effectively helps students express internal emotions and conflicts, enhancing both empathy and psychological resilience. Technological empowerment modules—such as using mind maps in collaborative research-practice psychological adjustment training—further increase the immersive and authentic nature of learning. With the support of technology, students quickly develop embodied cognition and experience positive psychological states (11, 30).

The social practice module emphasizes collaboration between universities and enterprises to conduct psychological quality development and community-based psychological services. These help students apply psychological competencies in real-world contexts and deepen the integration between theoretical knowledge and practical scenarios (27).

Research-practice teaching, through immersive practices such as psychodrama, mind mapping, and VR technology, effectively activates students’ subjectivity and embodied cognition. For instance, the process of selecting topics and performing in psychodrama (12) not only enhances students’ emotional expression abilities but also promotes self-awareness and social empathy through role-playing. This closely aligns with the theoretical logic of positive psychology that emphasizes “enhancing psychological capital through experiential learning” (13).

Furthermore, the technology-empowered module—such as mind map-based collaborative research-practice—improves knowledge construction efficiency through visual thinking tools. Data show that over 98% of students expressed interest in this model, and 97.26% considered it effective for most or specific teaching content (32), confirming the validity of embodied cognition theory in psychological education.

The establishment of an internal “Psychology–Teaching–Management” community and an external “Family–School–Community–Medical–Enterprise” linkage mechanism addresses the limitation of single-agent resource dependence in traditional education. For example, the “Four-Level Psychological Protection Network” at Beijing Normal University (33) operates through hierarchical collaboration involving student leaders, departments, the university’s psychological center, and institutional governance, significantly improving early identification and intervention in psychological crises.

Externally, the “Government–Media–Experts–Parents” model of the “Yangtze River Mental Health Base” in Wuhan (34), promoted through community operation and resource integration, emphasizes full-process parental participation and highlights the enhancement of psychological support networks through multi-agent collaboration.

However, current home-school educational resources have yet to be effectively integrated (8). The in-depth involvement of enterprise and medical resources remains insufficient. Universities still face a serious lack of collaborative support in psychological crisis intervention and career-related psychological adaptation (7, 29). In the future, policy guidance is needed to clarify responsibilities and rights—for instance, incorporating enterprise-based psychological support into the assessment indicators of school-enterprise cooperation.

The optimization of physical space and the empowerment of digital technology together form an “offline immersion–online tracking” all-scenario support system. The addition of campus green spaces and natural therapeutic zones echoes international findings on the “positive correlation between biodiversity and mental health” (9). For example, the high utilization rate (98%) of open spaces at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and their facilitative role in relaxation and social interaction (35) confirm the direct impact of physical environments on psychological states.

Meanwhile, the development of digital platforms breaks through temporal and spatial limitations. The “Campus Psychological Research-Practice Platform,” for instance, utilizes big data to detect risk behaviors such as social withdrawal and leverages AI psychological tutors to deliver real-time interventions. This resonates with the concept of “constructing a whole-person care ecosystem through digital health technologies” proposed by Perimal-Lewis et al. (15). However, privacy protection issues must not be overlooked. Practices from Singapore’s CHAT program—such as anonymization technology and ethical standards (1)—can be referenced to ensure compliance in technological applications.

Innovating the evaluation system is key to the sustainable operation of the ecosystem. The “Dual-Subject Interactivity Collaborative Evaluation” model (23, 26), which integrates student self-assessment, peer evaluation, and teacher feedback, compensates for the traditional assessment system’s neglect of psychological development processes. However, practical implementation still faces challenges such as vague quantitative criteria and increased evaluation burden on instructors.

In the future, blockchain technology could be introduced to record data from the research-practice process. By combining qualitative and quantitative indicators, a dynamic assessment model can be established. Additionally, cross-departmental policy collaboration is still lacking, resulting in uneven resource distribution. Research-practice facilities in universities located in economically underdeveloped regions remain insufficient. Special funding and regional resource-sharing mechanisms (such as the “Psychological Education Consortium”) should be used to bridge these gaps.

While this study presents a systematic framework for constructing a youth mental health campus ecosystem, it currently lacks robust empirical validation. It lacks longitudinal data to verify the sustained impact of the constructed ecosystem. The findings are primarily derived from case analyses and short-term intervention outcomes, without the support of longitudinal or controlled experimental data. As such, the outcomes remain exploratory rather than conclusive. Future research should prioritize the design and implementation of large-scale, cross-institutional longitudinal studies, with an emphasis on quantifiable psychological and behavioral outcomes across diverse student populations and academic stages. The inclusion of control groups and standardized metrics of effectiveness will be essential to evaluate the replicability and impact of the model.

Implementation strategies also require further development, particularly for low-resource or underserved institutions where infrastructure and personnel for research-practice integration may be limited. Future work should offer scalable, cost-effective pathways tailored to such settings—for example, leveraging existing student services or peer support networks for program delivery. Additionally, teacher training protocols should be systematized, ensuring facilitators are equipped with both psychological and technological competencies to sustain the ecosystem’s operation.

Culturally specific interventions—such as those integrating traditional culture or calligraphy-based therapy—remain in the early stages of implementation. These approaches should be further developed using frameworks from cultural psychology theories and indigenous mental health models, with rigorous evaluation to determine their relevance and impact among targeted populations. Deep cultural adaptation will be necessary to avoid superficial integration and ensure contextual sensitivity.

From an ethics standpoint, the use of digital tools—including AI-driven platforms, behavioral tracking, and online sentiment analysis—raises critical concerns regarding data privacy, algorithmic bias, and informed consent. While these concerns are acknowledged, future work must strengthen the ethical infrastructure underpinning such technologies. This includes developing transparent algorithmic auditing processes, drawing on international standards such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and China’s Personal Information Protection Law. Clear protocols for data minimization, purpose limitation, and informed consent must be implemented to safeguard student rights and promote trust in psychological technologies.

Finally, to align the proposed ecosystem with international best practices, future studies should consider embedding principles from frameworks such as the WHO’s Youth-Friendly Health Services Framework (15) into China’s higher education governance structures. Concepts like accessibility and equity, and student-centeredness must be operationalized through policy innovation, aligned with national strategies such as the “Healthy China 2030” Plan. By combining global standards with localized adaptations, the model can evolve into a replicable and context-sensitive framework for advancing youth mental health in higher education.