Mindfulness exercise and quality of life among nursing students: the mediating roles of self-control and internet addiction

Background: Internet addiction (IA) has become an increasingly prevalent behavioral health concern among university students, with previous studies reporting substantial levels of problematic internet use among nursing students, including a multicenter study in China that found a prevalence of 23.3%. Because problematic internet use may be associated with poorer quality of life (QL), QL represents an important well-being outcome in this population. Mindfulness exercise (ME), as a movement-based mindfulness practice, may serve as a protective factor associated with better self-regulation and healthier behavioral functioning. However, limited research has examined whether ME is associated with QL directly and indirectly through self-control (SC) and IA among nursing students.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 480 nursing students using validated measures of mindfulness exercise, self-control, internet addiction, and quality of life. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the measurement model were confirmed. Bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples was applied to examine direct and mediating effects among the study variables.

Results: The results showed that mindfulness exercise was positively associated with self-control (β = 0.435, p < 0.001) and quality of life (β = 0.181, p < 0.001). Self-control was negatively associated with internet addiction (β = -0.304, p < 0.001), and internet addiction was negatively associated with quality of life (β = -0.215, p < 0.001). In addition, self-control significantly mediated the association between mindfulness exercise and internet addiction (β = -0.132, p < 0.001), as well as the association between mindfulness exercise and quality of life (β = 0.163, p < 0.001). Furthermore, a significant sequential mediating effect of self-control and internet addiction was found in the association between mindfulness exercise and quality of life (β = 0.028, p = 0.001).

Conclusion: Mindfulness exercise was associated with better quality of life among nursing students, both directly and indirectly through self-control and internet addiction. In particular, the findings support a sequential mediation pathway in which higher mindfulness exercise was associated with higher self-control, which in turn was associated with lower internet addiction and better quality of life. Given the cross-sectional design, these findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal. CLINICAL

Trial Registration: Not applicable.