Background Workplace violence (WPV) and related health issues(sleep disturbances, cigarette smoking (CS) and alcohol use) among nurses are common in mental health services environment in China, but their epidemiology and associations with quality of life (QOL) based on multicenter designs has rarely been reported. Objectives (1) To explore the prevalence of WPV, sleep disturbances, CS and alcohol use among nurses working in psychiatric institutions; (2) to examine the independent associations between sociodemographic factors and the four aforementioned issues; and (3) to identify psychiatric nurses' QOL and its correlations with potential factors. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in 11 major Chinese psychiatric institutions. The 9-item self-reported workplace violence scale was used to measure WPV. Multiple-imputation (MI) technique was used to address missing data. Univariate analyses and multiple regressions were used to explore the associations. Results 2,026 questionnaires from psychiatric nurses were included and analyzed. The one-year prevalence of WPV, sleep disturbances, lifetime prevalence of CS and one-year prevalence of alcohol use were 84.5% (95% CI: 83.0%-86.0%), 71.7% (95% CI: 69.7%-73.7%), 7.3% (95% CI: 6.2%-8.5%) and 23.9% (95% CI: 22.1%-25.9%), respectively. Multiple regressions revealed: (1) higher monthly income, working in the department of psychiatry, shift work, higher levels of anxiety about WPV, having a WPV reporting system, using alcohol and having sleep disturbances were significantly associated with WPV; (2) age, shift work, higher levels of anxiety regarding WPV, alcohol use, CS and WPV experience were positively associated with sleep disturbances; (3) males and alcohol users were more likely to be cigarette smokers, while those from middle and east of China had inverse associations; (4) males, sleep disturbance, CS and those with WPV experiences showed positive correlations with alcohol use, while very high levels of anxiety regarding WPV was negatively associated with alcohol use; and (5) having WPV experiences and sleep disturbances had an inverse relationship with nurses' QOL. Conclusions WPV against nurses was common in Chinese psychiatric hospitals and had detrimental effects on nurses' QOL; measures should be taken to reduce the risk. Key words: workplace violence, sleep disturbance, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, quality of life, nurse, psychiatry