How parenting styles affect children’s creativity: Through the lens of self

• A positive parenting style is related to subjective and objective creativity. • A negative parenting style is related to objective creativity. • Self-esteem mediates a positive parenting style and subjective/objective creativity. • Self-esteem mediates a negative parenting style and objective creativity. • Socioeconomic status is a moderator between self-esteem and subjective creativity. Parenting style is an important contributor to the development of children’s creativity. We aimed to examine the association between parenting style and children's creativity and the internal mechanism from the lens of self. Specifically, we explored the association between a positive/negative parenting style and children's subjective/objective creativity, and the mediating role of self-esteem in these associations. Moreover, the moderating role of subjective socioeconomic status was examined. Questionnaire-based data were collected from 329 student–parent pairs. The students completed a demographic questionnaire that assessed gender, age, and socioeconomic status; the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale-Revised; the subjective creativity scales; and the objective creativity scales. At the same time, students’ parents completed the parenting style scale. We found that a positive parenting style was positively associated with both subjective and objective creativity, and that a negative parenting style was negatively associated with objective creativity. In addition, the mediation models indicated that the parenting styles were associated directly and indirectly, via the level of self-esteem, with children's creativity. Specifically, subjective socioeconomic status had a moderating effect between self-esteem and subjective creativity under a positive parenting style. The results indicate that a positive parenting style is better for the development of children's creativity. In addition, this study suggests that the protection and promotion of children's self-esteem is important for cultivating children's creativity, especially in high subjective socioeconomic status families.