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.
Yan et al. (Sat,) studied this question.