Developmental Relationships among Creativity Possibility Thinking, and Parenting Style

This study sought to develop a new measurement tool, the Possibility Thinking Questionnaire, to advance research on creativity and its core characteristics. The PTQ was derived from the research on possibility thinking, a framework theorized to capture the underlying cognitive and behavioral factors that drive creativity and innovation. Parents of children ages 3-18 were asked to complete an internet-based survey comprised of two validated parental-report assessments, the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) and the Parental Evaluation of Children\u27s Creativity (PECC-R), as well as an experimental assessment, The Possibility Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ). The data was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson correlations, and a series of analyses of variance to examine the relationship of the PTQ to an implicit-assumptions measure of creativity (the PECC-R), and the influences of parenting style, child\u27s age, and screen time on creative behavior as measured by both the PECC-R and PTQ. The results showed a strong correlation between possibility thinking and creativity, and that parenting style is strongly influential to creativity. The age-related and technology-related hypotheses resulted in mixed findings, but provide enough evidence of patterns among the variables to warrant further exploration. This new instrument, the PTQ, has the potential to inform creativity fostering practices in both the home environment and child-rearing settings such as schools or daycare programs. Similarly, researchers will be able to use the PTQ scale to glean new insights on creativity and how each of the underlying factors influence skill development over time