Relationships between Mothers′ Nurturing Behavior and Preschoolers′ Creativity

부모의 양육태도와 유아의 창의성과의 관계

This study was performed to identify the relationships between parents' nurturing behavior and preschoolers' creativity. The differences of parents' behavior and children's creativity by children's sex were also analyzed. The subjects were one hundred and four children(54 boys and 50 girls) and their mothers. Parents' nurturing behavior was assessed by a nurturing behavior questionnaire administered to the mothers, preschoolers' creativity was rated by the author through observation of the children's responses. The reliability of observation was calculated from 10 among the 104 children. The reliability coefficient was .96. The results were as follows: First, there were significant differences in parents' behavior according to the child's sex. Girls' parents showed more affective and achievement oriented attitude compared to the boys' parents. Second, there were also significant differences in .children's creativity according to sex. Girls' originality and flexibility were higher than boys, however, significant differences between girls and boys in fluency and imagination were not found. Third, parents' nurturing behavior and children's creativity were strongly related to each other. Children's imaginations were strongly related to the mothers' behavior. Children's originality and flexibility were also significantly related to their parents' behavior, but children's fluency did not show relations with their parents' behavior.