The Development Of Creativity In Primary And Secondary School Students And Its Relationship With Family Factors And Autonomy Motivation

Creativity has been identified as the ability to create product that is original and appropriate.Creativity plays an important role in the life of human beings.A lot of research have been conducted in the field of creativity and achieved rich results.However,there are still some important problems to be further discussed.First,the majority of previous studies have examined the development trend of creativity using cross-sectional design.However,using cross-sectional design did not explored the real development.Second,almost all the studies focused on the effect of related factors on the level of creativity instead of the effect of related factors on the development trend of creativity.Third,previous studies usually treated creativity as a result of development,rather than a dynamic development process,and simply tested the effect of individual and environmental factors on the creativity.Finally,all the longitudinal studies about creativity have been carried out in the western cultures with lack of studies of Chinese samples.To address the limitations in the existing literature,this study examined the development characteristics of students of primary and middle school under the background of Chinese culture using longitudinal design.In addition,the present study also examined the effect of environmental factors(parental education and parenting)and individual factor(autonomous motivation)on the development trend of individual creativity.Finally,the present study the dynamic interaction between creativity and related factors.Data used in the present study were from the database of a longitudinal research project.The data were collected during three assessments one year apart(T1,T2,and T3).The finally used data were from 541 fourth grade students,586 junior students of Grade 1,and 394 senior students of Grade 1.Data of creativity,parental education,parenting,and autonomous motivation were collected.SPSS20.0 and MPLUS 7.0 were used to analyze the data.The main conclusions of the present study were as follows:1.The developmental trend of individual creativity(1)The development of total creativity of students(10-18 years old)showed upward trend in the form of irregular wave,specifically,total creativity demonstrated a growing trend from Grade 4 to Grade 6;from Grade 7 to Grade 9,total creativity is on the decline;total creativity was stable from Grade 10 to Grade 12.The developmental trend of fluency,flexibility,and originality was much the same as total creativity.(2)No significant gender difference was found in the initial levels and developmental speed of total creativity from Grade 4 to Grade 6,significant gender difference was found in the initial levels and developmental speed of total creativity form Grade 7 to Grade 9,and no significant gender difference was found the initial levels of total creativity while significant gender difference was found in the developmental speed of total creativity form Grade 10 to Grade 12.The gender difference in fluency,flexibility,and originality was much the same as total creativity.2.The effect of parental education,parenting,autonomous motivation(1)Parental education positively predicted the initial level of total creativity of students in primary school and junior high school stage.(2)The effect of parenting depended on stage.Specifically,behavioral control positively predicted the development speed of total creativity from Grade 4 to Grade 6;autonomy support positively predicted the initial levels of total creativity of students in the junior middle school stage;psychological control negatively predicted the initial levels of total creativity of students in high school stage.(3)Autonomous motivation predicted the initial level of total creativity in elementary school,junior high school,and senior high school.In addition,in the junior middle school stage,the initial level of autonomy motivation still could significantly predict the developmental speed of total creativity.(4)Gender difference was found in the predicting role of behavioral control in total creativity of junior high school students.(5)Autonomous motivation mediated the relationship between autonomy support and total creativity of junior high school students.(6)Results found in fluency,flexibility,and originality was much the same as total creativity.3.The cross-lagged relationship between individual creativity and related factors(1)The cross-lagged relationship between autonomy support and total creativity were presented as parent effect during elementary and junior high school,while was shown to have both child effect and parent effect during senior high school;The cross lagged relationship between beahviroal control and total creativity were shown to have parent effect during elementary school,and was not related to each other during junior and senior high school;The cross lagged relationship between psychological control and total creativity were shown to have both child and parent effect during senior high school,while was not related to each other during elementary and junior high school.(2)Autonomous motivation had one-way influence on total creativity of primary school students and had a two-way influence on total creativity of middle school students.(3)Gender differences was found in the predict effect of autonomy support on total creativity of primary school students.(4)Autonomous motivation mediated the relationship between parental autonomy support and originality of primary school students longitudinally.(5)Results found in fluency,flexibility,and originality was much the same as total creativity.