Students’ Views on Parental Support for Creativity

Introduction: The influence of the family on a student’s development can be observed both at the start of compulsory schooling and throughout the course of it (Helus, 2015). In the hierarchy of cognitive processes, the highest educational goal is the ability to create, i.e. to reorganize elements into new structures and models (Byčkovský & Kotásek, 2004). The paper documents how 6th and 7th grade elementary school students reflect on parental support for their creativity.

Methods: The quantitative survey used basic indicators of both descriptive and inductive statistics. The sample of 330 respondents was an available selection of pupils from 13 primary schools in the Czech Republic in 2024. The data was collected physically at schools using a non-standardized questionnaire. The basis of the statistical data analysis was the identification of connections and differences in students’ statements according to the monitored criteria by verifying hypotheses focused on the frequency and importance of phenomena.

Results: The analysis of the data from the monitored sample revealed that the frequency of students’ perception of parental support for creativity varies statistically significantly by achievement, grade level, and school location. This fact was also demonstrated for students’ perceived importance of phenomena, including BMI values. A significant positive relationship was demonstrated between importance and frequency.

Discussion: The subject of discussion is the relationship of pupils at the borderline of middle and older school age (Matějček, 2008) to their parents and its reflection in the successful support of the development of creativity in schoolchildren.

Limitations: The survey was not conducted on a representative sample of students according to the criteria monitored: gender, school year, grade, BMI value, school location. The conclusions of the survey can therefore only be applied to the sample given of respondents.

Conclusions: Students confirmed the diversified influence of parental support on the development of their creative abilities. Statistically significant connections were demonstrated for seven out of ten formulated hypotheses.