These Parenting Styles are Best and Worst for Raising Creative Kids, According to Study

In the 21st century, creativity is of increasing value, and the seed for creativity is sewn early in childhood. As such, researchers have been looking at the correlation between parenting styles and creativity, and what they’ve found is quite interesting. Across these studies, results have shown a significant positive relationship between the authoritative parenting style and creativity and a significant negative relationship between the authoritarian style and creativity.

Let’s begin with a quick overview of the three main parenting styles looked at in these studies. Authoritarian parents are demanding and strict. This style is high in control and low on warmth. Authoritarian parents rule with an iron fist and a “my way or the highway” attitude. The focus is always on obedience, and therefore negotiation is never allowed. They make and enforce their rules with little regard to the child’s feelings or opinions.

Authoritative parenting is characterized by high standards and emotional responsiveness. Authoritative parents set appropriate limits and explain their rules while giving their children the resources and support needed for them to succeed. They take their children’s feelings and opinions into account while remaining in the leadership role. They are measured and fair in their discipline and employ positive discipline tools to teach their children better behavior and self-control.

Permissive parents are low in standards and high in warmth. They may set rules but do not often enforce them. They are lax in teaching better behavior and have a “kids will be kids” attitude. They may place too much emphasis on the child’s feelings and opinions, letting the child take the lead all too often.

In a study coming out of the Department of Psychology and Education Sciences at Alzahra University, authoritative parents are shown to raise the most creative children while authoritarian parenting actually decreases or stunts creativity. In this study, creativity was defined as “the ability to think in new ways in which unique solutions are found to face present problems.”

The study found that “parents can impact their child’s mood and provide his/her academic success and psychological growth through using different child-rearing practices.” Because authoritative parents imply age-appropriate demands, encourage their children to be autonomous, and allow their children to make decisions as they show readiness and make them participate in problem-solving as part of their discipline strategy, their children show more creativity.

On the other hand, they found that the perfectionist expectations of authoritarian parents and teachers weaken creativity. Because these parents firmly control their children and expect unquestioned obedience while providing little in the way of meeting emotional needs, these

children grow up in fear and negativity, their creativity squashed having never been exercised or supported.

The study found no significant correlation between permissive parenting and creativity.

This study is consistent with other studies, one being this study (source 2) of 66 Jamaican children which revealed that “the authoritarian style is the most salient predictor of children’s creativity, and that this relationship was negative.” Another study (source 3) of 323 honors college students at Midwestern University found that a “negative relationship between authoritarian parenting and creativity.” Again, this study (source 4) found that “parental acceptance and involvement was positively related to creativity-generating thinking styles.”

It stands to reason that if we want to nurture our child’s innate creativity, we must not inhibit it by being overly controlling. These studies consistently show a negative relationship between punitive and strict parenting and low creativity. Positive, authoritative parenting actually allows a child’s creativity to flow and grow. Through such positive parenting practices as building positive relationships with your children, responding to emotional needs, and teaching problem-solving skills, you can equip your child with a critical skill for future success.

Sources:

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815050326

2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400419.2013.752287

3. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0162353212459257

4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1041608014000508