Reciprocal Relationship Between Social Responsibility and Adolescents Everyday Creativity and Gender Differences

Everyday creativity is a pivotal developmental capacity throughout adolescence. Prior research has documented positive associations between social responsibility and creativity. Nevertheless, existing evidence is largely derived from adult workplace samples; the literature neglects gender differences and relies on cross-sectional data that cannot unpack their reciprocal temporal dynamics. To address these gaps, the present study employed a two-wave cross-lagged design to test the reciprocal association between social responsibility and adolescents' everyday creativity and explore potential gender variation. A sample of 571 Chinese adolescents completed the Social Responsibility Scale and the Short Creative Behavior Scale at two time points with a 12 month interval. The results indicated that Time 1 (T1) social responsibility positively predicted Time 2 (T2) everyday creativity, and T1 everyday creativity likewise predicted T2 social responsibility, verifying a reciprocal relationship between the two variables. Importantly, significant gender differences emerged in this reciprocal association: girls exhibited a responsibility-driven creativity pattern, whereas boys displayed a creativity-driven responsibility pattern. Overall, these findings identify the reciprocal association between social responsibility and everyday creativity, and the moderating role of gender in this relationship.