The Cascading Development of Parental Autonomy Support, Need for Cognition and Creativity in Chinese Middle School Students

Previous studies have demonstrated the independent effects of parental autonomy support and need for cognition on creativity. However, it remains unclear how these factors jointly drive the development of creativity among adolescents, or how creativity shapes need for cognition and influences individuals’ perceptions and constructions of their environments. Grounded on the framework of developmental cascades, this longitudinal study explored the dynamic relationships among parental autonomy support, need for cognition, and creativity development. Data were collected from 275 first-year middle school students from China (M_age(T1) = 12.730 ± 0.591, N_boys = 150) in three waves with 1-year intervals. The results indicated that parental autonomy support had a diffusion effect on the development of both need for cognition and creativity; bidirectional relationships between need for cognition and creativity, as well as between parental autonomy support and need for cognition. These findings suggest that creativity develops through the cascading changes in parental autonomy support and need for cognition, providing both theoretical and empirical support for the cultivation and development of creativity among Chinese adolescents.