Developmental trajectories of creativity during early adolescence and perceived parental attitudes:

A group-based trajectory approach

Abstract

This study sought to determine heterogeneous developmental trajectories of creativity during early adolescence and to identify parental attitudes explaining the differences between such developmental trajectory groups. Data at the first wave were collected from Japanese middle school students in seventh grade (N = 392). Creativity was measured by the Torrance Tests of Creativity Thinking-Verbal across three waves with six-month intervals. Parental attitudes (autonomy support and psychological control) were measured only at the first wave. Results from a group-based trajectory modelling and model comparisons revealed that creativity developmental trajectories were classified into three groups: low, moderate, and high. Multinomial regression analyses also showed that higher autonomy support and lower psychological control distinguished between the low and moderate groups. Our finding was first to show that the developmental trajectory of verbal creativity during early adolescence is not uniform and that positive parental attitudes partly contribute to the development trajectory of creativity.