An Investigation of Parental Support for Creativity Versus Conformity

• In Event: 66.087 - MTCC Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 66.087-12 - Research on Creativity, Talent Development, and Giftedness

Abstract

This study examined how parents’ attitudes and values toward creativity, creative home environment, and mindful parenting style are related to parents’ perceptions of creative versus socially acceptable characteristics. Analyses of the data collected from 1,324 parents indicated that they were more supportive of creativity traits than socially acceptable characteristics. Most importantly, parents’ attitudes and values toward creativity and creative home environment were significantly and positively related to support for creativity characteristics, whereas mindful parenting was significantly and negatively related to support for socially acceptable characteristics in children. Those findings show that parents who value creativity and set up a creative environment are more likely to support children’s creativity.

Authors

• Lina Pugsley, Keeping Creativity Alive

• Selcuk Acar, Buffalo State College - SUNY