The Relationship Between Warm, Rejecting, and Hostile Parenting Dimensions and Creative Production in the Creative Writing Domain

Creativity is an important aspect of human potential, which impacts individual problem solving and professional development and ultimately may lead to greater technological and cultural advancements. Different types of creative potential may benefit disparate areas. For example, verbal creative potential is especially relevant for creative achievement in domains relevant to language and academic achievement from childhood to adulthood. Many studies have identified parenting to play a major role in the development of creativity. While early research has identified authoritative parenting as ideal in predicting creative outcomes in children, contemporary research does not demonstrate clear findings in regard to how parenting styles influence and encourage creativity. Research has identified that the dimensional approach to study parenting—which includes the variables of warmth, rejection, and hostility—is useful when considering specific relationships between variables. Research linking parenting and creativity often did not identify what specific creativity domains are explored. When examining the measures used in past studies, a relationship between warm and rejecting parenting and verbal creative potential emerges. The current study aimed to better understand the relationship between warm, rejecting, and hostile parenting and verbal creative potential, production, and participation. We used a mediation model with a sample of 327 young adults who were asked questions to classify parenting variables in terms of how they themselves had been parented. Results of this study did not find a significant direct link between parenting variables and verbal creative production or participation. Similarly, no significant correlations were identified between parenting variables and verbal creative production or participation. Lastly, no significant relationship was found between warm, rejecting, and hostile parenting styles and verbal creative production and participation through verbal divergent thinking. Further research should include more direct measures of social creativity which may also be influenced by parenting style. Furthermore, subsequent research may also consider the effects of SocioEconomic Status and access to creative activities on creativity levels of participants