Creativity in Early and Middle School Years

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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to follow the development of creativity defined as the inclination to transgress the confines of an established perceptual context in children aged 7 to 11 years, after having studied 4-6-year-olds previously. One group of 55 7-8-year-olds, divided in a younger and/or more cognitively immature subgroup (I) and an older and/or more mature one (II), and one group of 31 10-1 1-year-olds (III), were tested with a special percept-genetic creativity test (PG) which significantly correlated with a creativity-fantasy scale. While creativity decreased in group I as compared with younger children, it increased drastically in group III, as did anxiety signs in a percept-genetic personality test (MCT) applied in all groups. While thus creativity seemed to benefit from a certain amount of anxiety, it was obviously blocked by excessive amounts or by low anxiety tolerance. The low creativity tide in 7-year-olds could perhaps be associated with the beginning of regular school in Sweden, but the high tide at the age of 10-11 years would perhaps point to an autonomous developmental rhythm.

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