The impact of family environment, optimism, and empathy on students' creativity

Creativity has been extensively examined as a critical factor in student development. However, the interplay between family dynamics and psychological traits in fostering creativity remains underexplored. This study investigates the mediating roles of optimism and empathy in the relationship between family environment-socio-economic status, parental engagement, and parent-child relationship-and student creativity. Using a sample of 7246 students from the Suzhou region, drawn from the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES), we applied the bootstrap method to assess indirect effects. Our findings reveal that socio-economic status and parental engagement have significant direct effects on creativity and significantly predict optimism and empathy, which subsequently enhance student self-reported creativity and parent-reported creativity. Notably, parentchild relationship did not exhibit a significant direct effect on either student self-reported creativity or parentreported creativity. Additionally, a chain mediation effect was identified, where socio-economic status and parental engagement influence creativity through the sequential mediation of optimism and empathy. Furthermore, optimism and empathy also act as chain mediators in the influence of the parent-child relationship on creativity. This study contributes to the literature by offering a comprehensive model that integrates family influences and psychological factors.