Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a time-limited, structured psychological treatment focusing on improving interpersonal functions to alleviate depressive symptoms. It has good research evidence to support its use in patients with depressive disorders, with a low dropout rate. To standardize the implementation of IPT in clinical practice for depression in China, this expert consensus was developed using an improved Delphi method. The consensus was formulated by a panel of 24 experts from psychiatry, psychotherapy and related fields, following a systematic literature review and evidence synthesis. It establishes the fundamental principles, standardized treatment processes, and target populations for IPT in treating depression. The consensus also offers graded recommendations based on current clinical evidence and discusses innovative models of IPT. This consensus aims to provide clinicians in China with standardized operational guidelines, to promote the widespread adoption and application of IPT in China, and to optimize the allocation of psychological treatment resources for depressive disorders.

With the growing severity of global mental health disorders, the shortage of psychological health services has become an urgent challenge. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, particularly generative pre-trained language models such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, presents significant transformative potential in psychological counseling and therapy. This article focuses on the core application scenarios of AI in psychological counseling and therapy, analyzing AI’s advantages in expanding access to psychological services, promoting service personalization and integration, and improving service efficiency and accessibility, thereby elucidating its profound impact on mental health services. However, AI still has fundamental limitations in providing emotional support and understanding complex human psychological activities. It cannot replace the core role of human psychological counselors/therapists in establishing therapeutic alliances and providing emotional care. The application of AI faces multiple challenges including ethical issues, technical limitations, and professional role redefinition. This article proposes specific coping strategies, emphasizing that AI should be positioned as an auxiliary tool for mental health services and achieving improvements in both service efficiency and quality through human-machine collaboration.

Objective: To revise the Chinese version of the Body Image Flexibility and Inflexibility Scale and examine its reliability and validity among Chinese college students.
Methods: From November to December 2023, convenience sampling was employed to survey 1 062 undergraduate students from three universities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province. Firstly, 30 students participated in a comprehensibility test on the initial Chinese version of the Body Image Flexibility and Inflexibility Scale to form the formal scale. Subsequently, the formal scale was used to measure 480 college students, and the data were subjected to item analysis and exploratory factor analysis. In the end, the formal scale was used to measure 482 college students, and confirmatory factor analysis and reliability and validity tests were conducted on the data. Two weeks later, 70 college students were asked to re-test for assessing test-retest reliability.
Results: Exploratory factor analysis revealed two dimensions in the Chinese version of the Body Image Flexibility Subscale: mindful acceptance and positive affective cognition, encompassing 12 items in total; and two dimensions in the Chinese version of the Body Image Inflexibility Subscale: active avoidance and negative affective cognition, with 11 items in total. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the models of the Chinese version of the Body Image Flexibility Subscale and Body Image Inflexibility Subscale both demonstrated good fitness (χ²/df=2.663, NFI=0.909, TLI=0.926, CFI=0.940, IFI=0.941, RMSEA=0.059; χ²/df=3.437, NFI=0.930, TLI=0.934, CFI=0.949, IFI=0.949, RMSEA=0.071). The Flexibility Subscale was negatively correlated with body perception (r=-0.07, p<0.05) and positively correlated with body appreciation (r=0.46, p<0.01); The Inflexibility Subscale was negatively correlated with body appreciation (r=-0.07, p<0.05) and positively correlated with body perception (r=0.33, p<0.01), indicating good discriminant validity. Furthermore, reliability tests showed that the overall Cronbach’s α coefficients of the two subscales were 0.843 and 0.874, respectively, indicating good internal consistency.
Conclusion: The Chinese version of Body Image Flexibility and Inflexibility Scale has good validity and reliability among Chinese college students, with each subscale having two dimensions, making it a reliable scientific research tool.

Objective: To explore the effect of relative deprivation on negative risk-taking behavior and positive risk-taking behavior of college students respectively, and to investigate the mediating role of perceived social support in these relationships.
Methods: Using convenience sampling, a survey including the Relative Deprivation Scale, the Risk-taking Behavior Scale, and the Perceptive Social Support Scale was conducted among 251 undergraduates from a university in Guangdong province. After excluding invalid responses (failed lie detection items), a total of 196 valid questionnaires were obtained. The correlation and mediation effect among the variables were tested.
Results: Relative deprivation was negatively correlated with perceived social support and positively correlated with both negative risk-taking behavior and positive risk-taking behavior. Perceived social support was negatively correlated with negative risk-taking behavior and positively correlated with positive risk-taking behavior. Negative and positive risk-taking behavior were positively correlated. Mediation modeling analysis showed that the direct effect of relative deprivation on negative risk-taking behavior was statistically significant with an effect value of 0.299. The mediating effect of perceived social support was 0.034 between relative deprivation and negative risk-taking behavior. The direct effect of relative deprivation on positive risk-taking behavior was statistically significant, with an effect value of 0.441. The mediating effect of social support between relative deprivation and positive risk-taking behavior had a “suppressing effect”, with a value of -0.040.
Conclusion: Relative deprivation can affect positive and negative risk-taking behavior among college students through perceived social support.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Supervisory Ability Scale (revised version), based on the Systematic Approach to Supervision (SAS) model, among psychological supervisors in China's mainland.
Methods: A convenience sampling method was used in this study to collect relevant data on psychological supervisors in two stages through the online questionnaire platform Wenjuanxing. The two waves of data collection were conducted more than six months apart. In the first stage, item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were conducted using the 224 valid responses obtained from Shanghai, Changsha, and Hangzhou with the 77-item version of the Supervisory Ability Scale. In the second stage, confirmatory factor analysis was performed using the 276 valid responses collected from different regions across China with the 44-item version.
Results: The final revised version of the scales had a total of 27 items, covering supervision relationship, supervision functions and tasks, and supervision context, explaining 58.822% of the overall variance. The internal consistency coefficients of each dimension ranged from 0.653 to 0.747. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the scale model fit well (χ²=743.692, df=321, χ²/df=2.317, TLI=0.901,IFL=0.911, RMSEA=0.069, SRMR=0.042, CFI=0.911, GFI=0.833); The correlations between various dimensions and the criterion-related measures were all significant (r=0.552-0.716).
Conclusion: The Supervisory Ability Scale (revised version) has good reliability and validity and can be used as an effective tool for clinical supervisory ability assessment.

Objective: To analyze the relationship between life satisfaction, sleep duration, and depressive symptoms in older adults, and to explore the mediating role of sleep duration between life satisfaction and depressive symptoms.
Methods: Questionnaire data from the 2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) of older adults aged 60 and above were used. Spearman’s rank correlation was used to examine the relationship between life satisfaction, sleep duration, and depressive symptoms. Logistic regression model was used to assess the relationships between variables, and a bootstrap test was used to examine the mediating role of sleep duration in the relationship between life satisfaction and depressive symptoms.
Results: Spearman correlation analysis showed that life satisfaction (ρ=-0.265, p<0.05) and sleep duration (ρ=-0.207, p<0.05) were negatively correlated with depressive symptoms, while life satisfaction was positively correlated with sleep duration (ρ=0.106, p<0.05). Mediation analysis revealed that sleep duration played a partial mediating role in the relationship between moderate life satisfaction and depressive symptoms (effect size = -0.478, 95% CI: -0.613 to -0.349) compared to those with low life satisfaction, and also between high life satisfaction and depressive symptoms (effect size = -0.649, 95% CI: -0.796 to -0.512).
Conclusion: Life satisfaction, sleep status, and depressive symptoms are significantly interrelated in older adults. Sleep duration played a partial mediating role between life satisfaction and depressive symptoms.

Objective: To investigate the current state of marital conflicts in contemporary China from the perspectives of marriage counselors.
Methods: Based on the 2002 to 2020 Chinese research findings in psychology and sociology related to marital conflict, combined with theoretical perspectives from mainstream marital counseling and clinical experience of marriage counselors, a self-compiled questionnaire was developed. An online survey was conducted with 121 marriage counselors with regards to the characteristics of help-seekers, types of marital conflict, and coping styles observed in their clients.
Results: 73.6% of counselors believed that women were usually the ones who initiated marital counseling, and couples under the age of 45 accounted for the highest proportion of those seeking help (63.6%). The top three triggers prompting couples to seek professional marital counseling were extramarital affairs (76.9%), communication difficulties within the marriage (71.9%), and difficulties in raising children (52.1%). 87.6% of counselors had provided counseling to couples dealing with infidelity. The main reasons for extramarital affairs included marital conflict (83.5%), personal values (49.6%), sexual difficulties (46.3%), difficulties in early parent-child relationships (41.3%), and intergenerational trauma (41.3%). Factors affecting marital quality included serious relational breakdowns (e.g., infidelity and domestic violence); impaired cooperative functioning (e.g., communication difficulties, sexual difficulties, and parenting problems); poor spousal compatibility (e.g., conflicts in personality traits); and major stressors (e.g., one partner suffering from illness). Marriage counselors categorized common coping styles for marital conflict into two types: positive and negative. Positive coping included communication and negotiation, emotional expression, and problem-solving; while negative coping included violence, blame, and emotional distancing.
Conclusion: The survey results reflect, to some extent, the dilemmas faced by contemporary Chinese marriages. The causes of conflict are diverse and should be addressed through positive coping strategies. Marriage counselors were more likely to examine the causes, coping mechanisms, and consequences of marital conflicts from relational and systemic perspectives.

Psychotherapy plays a crucial role in the intervention of psychological disorders, yet research on its side effects remains relatively limited. Exploring the side effects of psychotherapy is of great importance for optimizing treatment options, standardizing clinical practices, and improving safety. Psychotherapy side effects refer to unintended events that occur under the premise of proper treatment procedures, with overlap and distinction from adverse reactions and treatment incidents. These side effects manifest in various forms, and their incidence may be underestimated due to multiple factors. Patient characteristics, therapist factors, and treatment modalities all influence the occurrence of psychotherapy side effects. Currently, multiple tools are available for evaluating these side effects, each with its own strengths and limitations. In terms of countermeasures, therapists should carefully screen patients, ensure thorough informed consent, and consciously monitor the side effects during treatment. This article systematically reviews the concepts, incidence, influencing factors, and coping strategies related to psychotherapy side effects, aiming to provide references for advancing research and improving clinical practice.

To reveal the research dynamics and knowledge structure in the field of parental trust, this study employed bibliometric methods and CiteSpace to analyze 143 Web of Science articles (1998-2024). Using keyword co-occurrence, collaboration network, and burst term analysis, the study mapped the field’s productivity, themes, and frontiers. Results show an increasing annual output from 1 (1998) to 17 (2024) publications. The US (56 articles) was the core research force, followed by China (11) and Finland (10). Major institutions were concentrated in American and European universities, with Lerkkanen et al. forming the primary research collaboration network. Research focus areas included “home-school cooperation practices,” “student development,” and “vulnerable groups.” Burst terms such as “experiences” (2021-2022), “disability” (2022-2024), and “associations” (2021-2022) indicated growing attention to teacher experience, vulnerable groups, and the trust relationship between parents and teachers in the context of communication. The study concluded that parental-trust research needs to better analyze cross-cultural policy environments and the impact of digital communication tool. Future research should enhance dynamic tracking and interdisciplinary collaboration to meet the needs of modern educational governance.

With the increasingly fierce social competition, mental health problems of adolescents caused by psychological stress have become an important issue of global concern. This paper reviews the general processes, data types, and measurement methods for assessing individual stress detection using social network computing and systematically summarizes the current situation of adolescents' use of social networks and the latest research on stress and crisis detection based on these networks. The author proposes a framework for constructing a group-level early warning system for adolescents’ stress and crises. Future research will focus on the impact of positive events and various internal and external factors on individual adolescent stress, and aims to provide intelligent tools for group-level stress assessment and early warning in junior and senior high schools, thus improving the efficiency of mental health workers and helping the healthy development of adolescents.

Response surface analysis (RSA) is a statistical analysis method based on polynomial regression used to examine nonlinear relationships between two or more predictor variables and one outcome variable. Compared with the difference score method, RSA has distinct advantages in exploring the congruence problem. According to its mathematical principles, quadratic RSA follows a specific testing procedure for the congruence assumption. The generalized congruence assumption is verified by testing the matching between the first principal axis (FPA) and the line of congruence (LOC), and whether the inverted "U" shape, with the vertex at the origin, of the corresponding cross-sectional curve of the line of incongruence (LOIC) was exhibited. Furthermore, the morphological test of the LOC cross-section curve is carried out to test the strict congruence assumption, the rising ridge assumption, and other related conditions. The RSA package in R language enables model fitting, parameter estimation, and 3D visualization, providing a comprehensive and simple operation process for practical application in research. Although there are some misunderstandings and challenges in the use of RSA, it has significant advantages in hypothesis testing and result visualization and plays a key role in a wide range of research fields.

This case report details the psychological counseling of a kindergarten-aged boy who presented with excessive attachment to his mother, intense sibling rivalry with his elder brother, and overly ingratiating behaviors towards his parents. During the counseling process, the therapist innovatively combined the fantasy animal game with the mutual storytelling technique. Six sessions were conducted, utilizing four different fantasy animal drawings and their corresponding stories to understand the changes and development within the child's inner world. The fantasy animal game, founded by Handler, is a form of expressive arts therapy that employs projective drawing and story creation, particularly suitable for children and clients with lower levels of emotional developmental. In the sessions, the therapist combined this technique with mutual storytelling, jointly creating a "tailor-made" story with the child based on elements the child generated. This story not only encompassed the client's core conflicts but also, by uncovering the child's own positive internal resources, offered more possibilities and solutions. Ultimately, through the fantasy animal game, the therapist identified the root causes of the client's distress and helped him transform his competitive relationship with his brother into one of imitation and learning, thereby alleviating his excessive attachment to his mother and overly ingratiating behaviors towards his parents. This case demonstrates the applicability of the fantasy animal game for younger clients and its special value as a creative and metaphor-rich intervention in promoting children's emotional expression and behavioral change.

In recent years, psychological crises have occurred frequently in universities. The psychological crises among college students have characteristics such as diversity, concealment, and complexity, which pose greater challenges to psychological work in universities. To enhance the response rate and intervention capacity of schools to psychological crises, this study proposes a “one-click early warning” psychological crisis intervention system. The data sources include the psychological center, departmental counselors, students, teachers, school hospital, security department, logistics department, and other business units. It collects specific information about students from multiple dimensions such as daily study and life, interpersonal communication, and behavioral habits. Based on the system theory in the extended crisis theory and the stacking integrated learning framework, 300 students’ information was collected as a training set to build a psychological crisis early warning model. Subsequently, data from another 100 students were used as a test set to evaluate the predictive performance of the model. The results show that the model has good discrimination ability and can effectively warn students in crisis, bringing convenience to university psychological crisis work. It is expected that through the application of this program, the demand for mental health services of the student group in colleges and universities can be met, and substantive contributions can be made to building a harmonious society .