# Digital legal awareness intervention reduces anxiety through enhanced coping strategies: a cluster RCT among Chinese vocational students

## TL;DR

An interactive legal awareness program reduced anxiety in Chinese vocational students by improving their coping strategies.

## Contribution

A theory-based multimedia legal intervention was tested and shown to improve psychological outcomes in vocational students.

## Key findings

- The intervention reduced anxiety and improved positive coping strategies significantly more than traditional methods.
- Among students with clinical anxiety, 18.4% improved to subclinical levels in the intervention group.
- Positive coping strategies fully mediated the anxiety-reducing effects of the intervention.

## Abstract

Traditional legal publicity methods inadequately address both cognitive and psychological dimensions of legal awareness among Chinese vocational college students, who experience heightened anxiety when confronting legal challenges. This study evaluated whether theory-based interactive multimedia legal publicity improves psychological outcomes compared to conventional approaches.

A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted with 500 students from 14 classes across 7 colleges at a large vocational college in Southwest China. The intervention group (n = 258) received an 8-week interactive multimedia legal publicity program integrating micro-learning principles, narrative psychology, and social cognitive theory through WeChat group discussions and multimedia content delivery. The control group (n = 242) received traditional legal publicity through conventional channels. Primary outcomes included anxiety levels (Self-Rating Anxiety Scale) and coping strategies (Simple Coping Style Questionnaire) measured at baseline and post-intervention.

Linear mixed-effects models revealed significant intervention effects. The intervention group showed greater anxiety reduction (group × time interaction: β = 2.76, 95% CI [0.7, 4.8]), enhanced positive coping strategies (β = −4.92, 95% CI [−6.3, −3.5]), and reduced negative coping patterns (β = 3.55, 95% CI [2.4, 4.7]) compared to controls. Effect sizes were moderate to large (Cohen’s d = 0.40–0.64). Among students with baseline clinical anxiety, 18.4% in the intervention group versus 11.6% in the control group improved to subclinical levels. Mediation analysis indicated that positive coping strategies completely mediated the intervention-anxiety relationship, accounting for 76.5% of the total effect.

Theory-based interactive multimedia legal publicity may effectively reduce anxiety and enhance adaptive coping among Chinese vocational college students. The intervention’s reliance on familiar platforms and existing institutional structures suggests potential for scalable implementation in Chinese higher education contexts.