Abstract
Previous research has established that creative adolescents are generally low in neuroticism and as well-adjusted as their peers. From 2006 to 2013, data from cohorts of creative adolescents attending a counseling laboratory supported these results. Clinical findings of increased anxiety, depression, and suicidality among creative students in 2014 led the researchers to create 3 studies to explore these clinical findings. Once artifactual causes of these changes were ruled out, a quantitative study was conducted. Study 1, an analysis of mean differences of pre-2014 and post-2014 cohorts showed that post-2014 cohorts scored significantly higher in Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Conscientiousness and lower in Extraversion on Big 5 inventories. Regression analyses suggested that while Neuroticism was associated with gender, Conscientiousness and Grade Point Average for the earlier group, Neuroticism in the post 2014 groups was related to complex interplay of all personality dynamics except Agreeableness. In the qualitative Study 2, focus groups of 6–10 students, for a total of 102 participants were queried about the reasons they perceived for increased anxiety and depression in creative students. Increased achievement pressures and awareness of environmental and social problems were major sources of external stressors; perfectionism and desire to fulfill expectations of others were the primary sources of internal stress. The authors suggest that creative students' openness to experience and advanced knowledge made it possible for these students to see the potential for environmental and social crises and respond to their inability to solve these problems with anxiety and depression. Study 3 was a qualitative study that followed up 19 participants from the post-2014 cohort to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and creativity. While the majority perceived a negative effect of the pandemic on their mental health, most also produced a surprising variety of creative works during that time. In conclusion, rapid changes in the lives of creative adolescents since 2014 suggest that scholars focus on current cohorts and the ways in which adolescent personality is shaped by internal expectation and external pressures and global events. Despite the pandemic, creative young people continued to create.
Highlights
The scientist-practitioner model of training has long been the ideal in clinical and counseling psychology training programs, with science informing practice, and practice stimulating research questions (Mallinckrodt et al, 2014)
What else could account for the sudden increase in depressed, anxious, and suicidal students?. Because these efforts did not yield an artifactual explanation for the observed increases in depression, anxiety, and suicidality, we developed 2 research projects, one quantitative and one qualitative to explore questions that would reveal information that might help us to understand and assist creative students in crisis
The following research questions informed our investigation: 1. Are the trends observed in depression, anxiety, and suicidality of creative adolescents in our sample after 2014 paralleled by national trends in the prevalence of these disorders?
Summary
The scientist-practitioner model of training has long been the ideal in clinical and counseling psychology training programs, with science informing practice, and practice stimulating research questions (Mallinckrodt et al, 2014). Our study is an example of research that was prompted by anomalous clinical observations by doctoral counseling psychology students working in a research-throughservice career counseling program for creative adolescents (the Counseling Laboratory for the Exploration of Optimal StatesCLEOS). The profiles included high demonstrated ability in a creative domain (fine arts, performing arts, scientific and technology invention, creative writing, and interpersonal) as well as general creative traits, interests, and values; the profiles had been validated (Kerr and McKay, 2013) for predicting creative personality and creative productivity. The profiles included high demonstrated ability in a creative domain (fine arts, performing arts, scientific and technology invention, creative writing, and interpersonal) as well as general creative traits, interests, and values; the profiles had been validated (Kerr and McKay, 2013) for predicting creative personality and creative productivity. Kerr and McKay (2013) found descriptions of clusters of domain-linked traits of fine and performing artists/writers and scholars/scientists similar to previous studies (Ivcevic and Mayer, 2006) and a large cluster of interpersonal creative traits similar to creative leadership studies (ReiterPalmon and Illies, 2004)
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