Agreement between Mothers and Sons on Ratings of Creative Activity

Abstract

Creative Activities and Accomplishments Check Lists are often used to assess the creative performance of children. Check Lists are attractive because the respondent is generally well informed about his or her own past achievements, and the focus is on actual rather than potential performance. Additionally, Check Lists can be used to assess creative activity in a variety of domains. This is very important given the current view of creativity as involving domain-specific skills. The present investigation was conducted to evaluate the validity of ratings of children's creativity obtained with a Creative Activities Check List. A Check List was administered independently to sons (n = 73) and their mothers (n = 60). It contained 55 items from four domains: math-science, art, crafts, and writing. Correlational analyses indicated that the four domain ratings given by the mothers concerning their sons' creativity were significantly related to the four domain ratings of their sons. Four canonical functions were derived, accounting for a total of 85% of the variance (p < .001) of the ratings. Similarly, the mean ratings given by mothers and their sons were not significantly different, suggesting that mothers' ratings might be used when ratings from children cannot be obtained. These results support the validity of the Activities Check List.