How adolescents develop and implement their ideas? On self-regulation of creative action

• Published in: Thinking skills and creativity 2022-03, Vol.43, p.100998, Article 100998
• Main Authors: Zielińska, Aleksandra, Lebuda, Izabela, Ivcevic, Zorana, Karwowski, Maciej
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescents; Creative activity; Creative mindsets; Creative self-concept; Creative self-regulation; Creativity
• ISSN: 1871-1871; 1878-0423
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsc.2022.100998

•Self-regulation of longer-term creative projects undertaken by adolescents is explored.•A new self-report measure of self-regulation for creative action is presented.•Self-regulatory strategies are predicted by personality traits and creative self-beliefs (creative self-concept, creative mindsets).•Self-regulatory strategies are predictive for the projects' differences in creativity. This study explores how adolescents regulate their activity while working on creative projects. A large sample (N = 739) of Polish adolescents reported on their most creative, complex project conducted within the last year and answered retrospectively framed self-regulation items related to this specific activity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated a consistent pattern of self-regulation, capturing pre-task self-regulatory strategies (obstacles expectations, uncertainty acceptance), during-task strategies (adjusting approach, managing and reframing ambiguous goals, emotion regulation and dealing with obstacles), and post-task strategies (improving approach, readiness for sharing). Participants' personality, creative self-concept, and creative mindsets were robustly related to the different strategies reported. Additionally, strategies resulted in differences in creativity of the projects conducted. We discuss the theoretical consequences and future research directions for creative self-regulation studies.