With rising psychological concerns among college students, educators and scholars are increasingly emphasizing mental health. As a key component of university curricula, aesthetic education plays a significant role in enhancing the psychological wellbeing of college students. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which focuses on three fundamental psychological needs-autonomy, competence, and relatedness-this study explores how aesthetic education influences the psychological well-being of university students. Specifically, aesthetic education fosters autonomy through self-expression, enhances competence by promoting creative development, and nurtures relatedness by facilitating social interaction in collaborative artistic activities. The study examines the mediating role of basic psychological needs and the moderating effects of gender and age. A total of 513 college students from China were surveyed using convenience sampling. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, hierarchical regression and mediation analysis were conducted using SPSS 26.0 to assess key variables, including aesthetic education, basic psychological needs, and psychological well-being. The results reveal significant positive correlations between aesthetic education, students' psychological wellbeing, and the fulfillment of basic psychological needs. Furthermore, aesthetic education significantly predicts the psychological well-being, with the satisfaction of basic psychological needs partially mediating this relationship. Gender and age were found to moderate the relationship between aesthetic education and psychological wellbeing to varying extents. These findings elucidate important associational pathways between aesthetic education, college students' psychological wellbeing, and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, contributing both to the understanding of SDT and to practical applications in the context of university-level aesthetic education.
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