The expansion of vocational education enrollment is a policy measure aimed at increasing the popularity of vocational education. From the perspective of dealing with student anxiety, the expansion of vocational education may bring some positive effects.

The study selected students from several vocational colleges as the research subjects and divided them into vocational expansion groups and non vocational expansion groups. The vocational expansion group includes newly recruited students under the expansion policy in recent years, while the non vocational expansion group includes traditionally recruited students. The study collected students’ anxiety scores and mental health questionnaire survey data as analysis indicators and used Stata statistical software for data processing and analysis.

In the experimental results, the anxiety scores of students in the vocational expansion group were slightly lower. The anxiety score of students in the vocational expansion group decreased from the initial 28.5 to 27.8, while the anxiety score of students in the non vocational expansion group increased from the initial 27.8 to 30.2. The experimental results showed statistical significance between the experimental group and the control group.

The research results indicate that the expansion of vocational college enrollment has a certain positive impact on students’ anxiety disorder, providing a certain reference for the implementation of vocational college enrollment expansion policies, and having practical help effects on students’ mental health problems.

Jiangsu Province Higher Education Teaching Reform Research Project (No. 2021JSJG472).