Testing aspects of Carl Rogers's theory of creative environments: child-rearing antecedents of creative potential in young adolescents.
Longitudinal data involving 106 children and their parents were used to test preschool child-rearing implications of Carl Rogers's theory of creativity-fostering environments (Rogers, 1954). Indices were developed for each parent and for each mother-father combination that reflected the degree to which the parents' child-rearing practices and interactions with their preschool children matched the recommendations implicit in Rogers's description of a creativity-fostering environment. The three indices of Rogers-prescribed child-rearing practices each correlated positively (rs = .38 to .46) and significantly (all ps less than .001) with a composite index of creative potential in early adolescence, 7 to 11 years later. Rogers-prescribed preschool child-rearing practices also emerged as significant antecedents of adolescent creative potential in regression/path analyses that held constant the influence of sex, preschool intelligence, and preschool creative potential. Theoretical and methodological aspects of the study are discussed.
D000293:Adolescent; D002657:Child Development; D002668:Child Rearing; D003405:Creativity; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012931:Social Environment