Abstract
Family rules, routines, and resources shape children’s creativity. However, little is known about how parents’ creative self-concepts and creative activity are related to the lifestyle adults create in their families. Family lifestyle might be operationalized as referring to domain-general dimensions of family social functioning (cohesion, flexibility, communication, and family satisfaction) and domain-specific factors related to creativity, namely, family climate for creativity (encouragement to experience novelty and varieties, encouragement to nonconformism, support of perseverance in creative efforts, encouragement to fantasize). To explore the link between parents’ creativity-related characteristics and family lifestyle, 303 Polish parents (57% mothers) of children aged between 6 and 10 (M = 7.99; SD = 1.38) reported on their creative self-concept (creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity), creative activity, overall family lifestyle, and climate for creativity in their families. We found that parents’ creative self-concept and their creative activity predict support for creativity in the family and more general balanced and satisfying family relationships. We discuss these findings, point new paths for future research, and suggest possible interventions to strengthen families as creativity-fostering environments.
Highlights
Everyday practice of parenting, as well as interpersonal relationships in the family, define the developmental context and set socialization goals [1]
Some associations between variables were unexpected. It was the positive link between balanced flexibility and rigidity (r = 0.29; p < 0.05)
In the case of family climate for creativity, contrary to our expectations, some scales linked negatively to each other; for instance, encouragement of nonconformity was negatively linked with encouragement of novelty (r = −0.53; p < 0.05), support of perseverance (r = −0.70; p < 0.05), and encouragement of fantasy (r = −0.47; p < 0.05)
Summary
As well as interpersonal relationships in the family, define the developmental context and set socialization goals [1]. Effective parenting might serve as a protective factor for risk and unhealthy behaviors among young people [7] Creativity literature, both classic [8,9,10,11,12,13] and contemporary [14,15,16,17,18,19,20], provides additional evidence of how parents influence children’s abilities and later achievements. While parental style and practices result from more general goals and values [1], still little is known about parents’ specific psychological characteristics and behaviors that might play a role in creating a family environment that supports development of abilities, beliefs, and attitudes conducive to children’s creativity. Creativity was found to be the source of positive emotions [21,22,23,24], a way to self-fulfillment, self-actualization, and a characteristic of a healthy individual [25]
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