Self-perceived creativity and curiosity in middle childhood

Bazhydai, Marina and Karadag, Didar (2026) Self-perceived creativity and curiosity in middle childhood. Acta Psychologica, 267: 107140. ISSN 0001-6918

Abstract

Creativity and curiosity are highly regarded yet notoriously hard to capture. Despite the growing interest, there is a lack of understanding of children's perceptions of creativity in their daily activities and studies addressing the two constructs and the links between them are scarce and methodologically varied. British children aged 10–11 (N = 163) were asked an open-ended question about the contents of their creative pursuits, followed by self-report measures of curiosity and creativity (a subset of N = 73). Children's open-ended responses were assigned into nine domain-focused data-driven categories, dominated by the craft, do-it-yourself, and visual art domains, with girls reporting more activities in craft, visual art, and scientific design, while boys in digital, creative writing, imagination, sport, and DIY. Children who reported a creative activity (53%) scored significantly higher on all measures of curiosity and creativity compared to children who did not provide a response. Children's self-reported creativity and curiosity were highly positively correlated, with no pronounced gender differences. Boys and girls were equally represented in the “high” vs “low” creativity and curiosity subgroups (47% and 53% of children in “high” groups, respectively), with children in the “high” category providing more examples of creative activities in craft, DIY, visual arts, and digital domains, while those in the “low” category - in scientific design closely affiliated with school homework. These exploratory results contribute to the growing literature investigating the links between curiosity and creativity and provide insights into the nature of creative activities in middle childhood.