The formation of preschooler’s creative personality: the promotion mechanism of positive family routines

BACKGROUND: Preschool is a sensitive period for the formation of creative personality, yet little is known about how everyday family routines contribute to preschoolers' creative personality or through which psychological mechanisms these effects occur. METHODS: Using classroom‑cluster sampling, 664 preschool children aged 3-6 years and their parents from kindergartens in Jiangxi Province participated. Parents completed three validated questionnaires: the Chinese Family Routines Scale, the Autonomy of Children Scale, and the Creative Personality subscale of the Creativity Assessment Packet. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations were computed, followed by structural equation modeling and bias‑corrected bootstrap mediation analyses. RESULTS: Positive family routines were significantly and positively correlated with autonomy (r = .335, p < .001) and creative personality (r = .339, p < .001), and autonomy was positively correlated with creative personality (r = .347, p < .001). Positive family routines significantly predicted creative personality (γ = 0.412, p < .001) and autonomy (γ = 0.505, p < .001), and autonomy significantly predicted creative personality (γ = 0.433, p < .001). Autonomy partially mediated the association between positive family routines and creative personality, accounting for 53.16% of the total effect. CONCLUSIONS: Positive, structured, and emotionally supportive family routines are positively associated with preschoolers' creative personality, both directly and indirectly through higher autonomy, highlighting autonomy‑supportive family environments as a key target for early interventions to foster creative development.