Anxiety and inhibitory control play a chain mediating role between compassion fatigue and Internet addiction disorder among nursing staff

Mental health problems among nurses are prevalent and harmful. Nurses worldwide have encountered serious mental health issues. Although fatigue has been proven to lead to substance abuse or addictive behaviors (such as internet addiction), there is a lack of sufficient data on whether there is a connection with compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is a common mental health problem in helping professions. Anxiety and inhibitory control have been demonstrated to be associated with internet addiction, but the mediating role between them in the state of compassion fatigue remains to be further explored. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the chain—mediating effect of anxiety and inhibitory control between compassion fatigue and internet addiction in the nurse population. From July to August 2024, a questionnaire survey was conducted using a convenience sampling method in 7 hospitals in Hunan Province, China. A total of 516 front—line clinical nurses were included, among whom 17 were male and 499 were female. Subjective data on compassion fatigue, internet addiction, anxiety, and inhibitory control were collected and analyzed. SPSS 26.0 and its PROCESS macro—plugin were used for data analysis. After controlling for age and gender, compassion fatigue was found to be a significant predictor of internet addiction (β = 0.40, P < 0.001). However, when anxiety and inhibitory control were added, the prediction of compassion fatigue on internet addiction in the nurse population remained significant (β = 0.18, P < 0.001). Eventually, the research results show that compassion fatigue can predict internet addiction through anxiety and inhibitory control. It is recommended that nursing managers provide appropriate emotional interventions for nurses with compassion fatigue or adjust the shift—scheduling and leave system to prevent the occurrence of internet addiction. © The Author(s) 2025.