Data for "High compliance and reduced online gaming time among Chinese adolescents after the 2021 gaming policy: Effects across all gamers, not just heavy users"

The data presented here pertains to the study titled "High Compliance and Reduced Online Gaming Time Among Chinese Adolescents After the 2021 Gaming Policy: Effects Across All Gamers, Not Just Heavy Users". Previous research examined the compliance rate and alternative behaviors of heavy adolescent gamers in response to China’s 2021 online gaming policy; however, several methodological concerns have been raised, including the omission of the 2019 policy, an overly narrow focus on heavy gamers, and ambiguities in key definitions. In the present study, we address these concerns by clarifying the independence of the 2021 policy, expanding the analysis to include all adolescent participants, and incorporating pre- and post-policy gaming time as an additional metric to measure the policy’s impact.Results from a larger sample (N = 2,715; mean age = 10.84) revealed a high compliance rate (93.6%) and a significant post-policy decrease in daily gaming time (from 60.12 minutes to 43.52 minutes per day, p < 0.001). Notably, the reported gaming time may include offline or single-player gameplay. These findings support the conclusion that the 2021 policy significantly reduced adolescents' gaming time and achieved high compliance rates. Furthermore, the policy’s longer-term effects on adolescents’ psychological well-being and physical health warrant further investigation.