Acceso usuarios
Zhenyu Li, Qiong Li
Fostering creativity is a key objective of contemporary education, yet the socio-emotional pathways through which classroom relationships influence students’ creative outcomes remain underexplored. Grounded in the 4Ps model of creativity and using data from the Istanbul sample of the OECD’s Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES), this study investigates how teacher–student relationships predict student creativity through the sequential mediation of empathy and cooperation. The sample comprised 5,869 students aged 10 and 15 from 101 primary and secondary schools in Istanbul, Türkiye. Descriptive statistics were calculated based on students’ raw scores, while multiple linear regression and mediation analyses were conducted using weighted likelihood estimates (WLEs). Results indicated that teacher–student relationships positively predicted both self-reported and parent-reported creativity. Empathy and cooperation each partially mediated the association between teacher–student relationships and creativity, and a significant sequential mediation path was observed, wherein teacher–student relationships fostered empathy, which in turn promoted cooperation and subsequently enhanced creativity. These findings underscore the importance of nurturing relational and socio-emotional competencies in schools to support creative development. Implications for educational practice and future research are discussed.
