The arrival of the new media era presents new challenges and opportunities for college students’ mental health education. Modern college students face multiple pressures such as academics, employment and interpersonal relationships, and psychological problems are becoming increasingly obvious. This study assessed the implementation effect of college students’ mental health education in the new media environment based on regression analysis. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey, 250 questionnaires were distributed and 226 valid questionnaires were collected, with a recovery rate of 90.4%. The evaluation model was constructed using principal component analysis and multiple linear regression analysis, and three common factors were extracted from 13 independent variables: teacher factor, basic factor and teaching factor, and mental health enhancement factor, with a cumulative variance contribution rate of 81.692%. Regression analysis showed that the R² of the model was 0.658, the adjusted R² was 0.584, and the F value was 20.825, which verified the validity of the model. The results of the assessment showed that the overall rating of the implementation of mental health education in the sample universities was 78.62, with the highest score at level 2023 (82.33), the second highest at level 2022 (79.71), and the lowest at level 2021 (74.46). It was found that the variables X3 (mental health and quality), X7 (evaluation of the teaching process), and X8 (professional competence of teachers) statistically significantly affect the educational effectiveness. Based on the results of the study, countermeasure suggestions such as innovating teaching methods, taking students as the main body, utilizing new media tools, carrying out practical activities, improving the quality of teachers and improving the evaluation system are proposed to provide reference for the improvement of the implementation effect of mental health education in colleges and universities.
