The Relationship between Undergraduate Students’ Parenting Style and Creativity

Abstract

Taking into account previous research on the role that the parenting styles to which individuals are exposed during childhood have in shaping pro-social behaviors, attitudes and personality and so on, this study aims to investigate the relationship between parenting styles of parents and creativity. Design/Methodology/Approach: The creativity and the parenting style questionnaires were completed by 239 undergraduate student participants. Pearson correlation coefficients were extracted and regression analysis was performed. Findings: The results indicate that undergraduate students with democratic parents tend to show stronger creative thinking and open the way to further study what parental characteristics may be responsible for the development of creativity in undergraduate students. Research Limitations/Implications: Participants retrospectively assessed their parents’ style. Future research may recruit both the actual parents of participants to collect more accurate data on parenting practices or use observational methods. Social Implications: This work seems to suggest that to achieve a more creative society, the ability of parents to raise their children by adopting a democratic style should be taken into account and—if needed—enhanced. Originality/Value: To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between parenting styles of parents and creativity.