Abstract
University students face growing psychological and relational challenges, while many university programmes remain knowledge-centred and provide limited opportunities for practical communication and emotional learning. This conceptual paper develops a mechanism-oriented framework explaining how drama-based interventions may promote students’ mental health and healthy relationship development. It identifies five mechanisms: psychologically safe role experience, emotional expression and regulation, perspective-taking and empathy, dialogic rehearsal and relational agency, and reflective integration. Through embodied participation and collaborative reflection, applied drama may help students explore emotional difficulties, interpersonal conflict, boundaries, and help-seeking. The paper also outlines principles for curriculum design, facilitation, psychological safety, and evaluation. Drama-based interventions are positioned as educational and preventive practices rather than psychotherapy.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Yannan Hou, Shaowei Chen, Keying Hou, Wensha Wu, Rui Zhang, Yajin He (Author)