Children’s Creative Storytelling Processes: A Cross-Cultural Study in the United States and Spain

Abstract

Creativity is contextual; opportunities for and ways of being creative vary by culture. While studies have documented the differences between creative behavior in Eastern and Western cultures, comparisons between the United States and Western European nations have been much rarer. This paper presents research comparing the creative storytelling of children in the United States and Spain. Moreover, instead of focusing only on differences in mean scores, we ask a different question—what predicts ratings of children’s creative storytelling from different cultures? Results show that in the U.S., only novelty predicted ratings of creativity, but in Spain, novelty and the use of emotions independently predicted ratings of story creativity. Several explanations for these observed differences are discussed, including differences in overall culture, as well as possible differences in socialization at school. We discuss how cultural values and national identity contribute to how children approach creative tasks.