Creative development, self-esteem and barriers to creativity in university students of education according to their participation in artistic activities

Abstract

Different studies have pointed out the relationship between participation in artistic activities and creative development. However, there is scant literature that addresses the issue in students who are training to be future teachers. This is the reason for the present study, which focuses on university students of education degrees at two public universities located in different Spanish cities. The main objective of the study was to discover the role played in creative development, self-esteem and barriers to creativity by prior participation in artistic activities. The study also aimed to detect the frequency with which these students undertook artistic activities and to determine which activities were most frequently carried out by men and women. In view of the scarcity of rigorous measurement instruments validated for the Spanish population, the study also proposed to validate the Inventory of Personal Creativity Barriers in the Spanish population. A total of 574 students participated in the validation and 291 (randomly selected) in the subsequent quasi-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic data, a Personal Creativity Barriers Inventory, the Test of Creative Imagination for Adults (PIC-A) (2012) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965). The validation of the Inventory showed contrasted evidence of internal consistency. The results of the study to determine differences associated with participation in artistic activities detected that the group who carried out such activities obtained higher scores in narrative, graphic (although at the limit of significance) and general creativity. No significant differences were found between the groups in the factors of barriers to creativity or self-esteem. We conclude by recommending participation in artistic activities given the benefits deriving from creativity, particularly in narrative and graphic tasks.