The changes of creativity among Chinese primary and middle school students (2007-2022)

The changes of creativity among Chinese primary and middle school students (2007-2022) | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The changes of creativity among Chinese primary and middle school students (2007-2022) shunyu Li, xiaoli tan This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6533138/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Global development, when considered in the contemporary international competitive practices, demonstrate that talents represent the key strategic resource. Innovation as well as the core driving force for development. The youth population also crucial motivates the global technological revolution and cross-border collaborative innovation due to their open-mindedness and vitality in cross-border activities. Therefore, it is necessary to explore creativity change trends among primary and secondary school students. Accordingly, this study collected data consisting of data covering 16 years in total with respect to creativity tendencies among Chinese primary and secondary school students. Employing a cross-sectional historical meta-analysis, this finding indicates a continuous increase over the years in the creativity of these students. Their adventurousness, curiosity, imagination, and challenge power factors also exhibit constant positive trends. Further analysis explored the predictive effect of social indicators on creativity. The exploration determined that national education funding, educational funding per student, the availability of full-time teachers and those holding senior titles, and the number of school-based digital terminals exhibit significant or marginal predictive power regarding students' creativity and its components. When comparing students across the three educational stages (primary, junior high, senior high), high school students exhibited the largest growth in overall creativity and challenge power. Primary school students, in comparison, demonstrated the greatest increases concerning adventurousness, curiosity, and imagination factors. A comparison between male and female students indicated no significant overall difference; however, male students displayed a more significant increase in both creativity and its related factors. Innovative talent cultivation hinges upon nurturing student creativity and cultivating the development of factors such as adventurousness, curiosity, imagination, and challenge power. Both augmenting the supply of educational resources and respecting the individual developmental paths of students contribute positively, to a certain degree, toward achieving this objective. Social science/Development studies Social science/Education Social science/Psychology Social science/Sociology Creativity Innovative Talents Basic Education Cross-temporal Meta-analysis Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 06 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 02 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 31 Mar, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Mar, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 Mar, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 Mar, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Mar, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 23 Feb, 2026 Editor invited by journal 06 Jun, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 06 Jun, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 19 May, 2025 First submitted to journal 26 Apr, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6533138","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":596733733,"identity":"49c4e3de-9fe6-47ee-b7b1-a75b18082e9b","order_by":0,"name":"shunyu Li","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAtElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACPghlw8PP30CkFjYIlSYjOeMAaVoO2xg0JBCrhf+M2cOfbed5DBgOMH74mEOMFokcc2Petts85swNzJIztxGlhcdMmhGoxbLhABszL1FagA6T/Nl2jsfgQAKxWhhyzCR42w6QokUirdyY51wyj+SMg83E+YWf//C2hz/K7Oz5+ZsPfvhIjBYGBg4zBkZw7DA2EKUeCNifMTD8IVbxKBgFo2AUjEgAAEsnMBMSlew9AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang Normal University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"shunyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""},{"id":596733734,"identity":"1d50ac6b-2ffb-420f-9655-a68c21445db6","order_by":1,"name":"xiaoli tan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"xiaoli","middleName":"","lastName":"tan","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-26 06:53:15","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6533138/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6533138/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104397468,"identity":"759065d9-a63f-45be-a311-b479689266b5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 11:49:02","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":611506,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TheChangesofCreativityamongChinesePrimaryan.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6533138/v1_covered_823f4d0d-f2f6-4663-89a5-110b205d9c9a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The changes of creativity among Chinese primary and middle school students (2007-2022)","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Creativity, Innovative Talents, Basic Education, Cross-temporal Meta-analysis","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6533138/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6533138/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eGlobal development, when considered in the contemporary international competitive practices, demonstrate that talents represent the key strategic resource. 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