Positive Risk-Taking and Creativity in Grade 6 Children: The Moderating Role of Psychological Safety

Abstract

Creativity is one of the 21ˢᵗ century skills that will be needed in the future labor market. Prior studies suggest that individuals more willing to take socially acceptable and constructive risks are more likely to exhibit creative behavior. A psychologically safe learning environment may foster this positive risk-taking and creativity. However, to-date, many questions remain unanswered about this relationship among primary school children, as teachers vary in how they perceive and engage with positive risk-taking. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between positive risk-taking and creativity among Grade 6 children, and the moderating role of psychological safety in the classroom. A quantitative survey investigates this relationship among 242 Dutch Grade 6 children by using self-reported positive risk-taking and psychological safety measures combined with a divergent thinking task. The results indicated that positive risk-taking is positively related to children’s originality, an indicator of divergent thinking, which is the ability to generate novel and surprising solutions to a given problem. Yet, no moderating effect was found between psychological safety and the relationship between positive risk-taking and creativity. Together, these findings illustrate that it is essential to encourage positive risk-taking in classrooms to develop more originality in children at an early age.