Interrelationships among parental play support and kindergarten children’s playfulness and creative thinking processes

• Parental play support links with child convergent thinking via social spontaneity • Parental play support links with child divergent thinking via cognitive spontaneity • No direct links between parental play support and child creative thinking processes This study examined the direct and indirect relationships of parental play support with playfulness and creative thinking processes in Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children. Participants were 181 second-year (age range 4 to 5 years) local kindergarten children (54.1% girls) and their parents. Parents reported demographic information, parental play support, and children’s playfulness (physical spontaneity, social spontaneity, cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy, and sense of humor) through a questionnaire. Participating children were administered behavioral assessments of convergent thinking and divergent thinking at their kindergarten. Results from a path analytic model revealed social spontaneity and cognitive spontaneity as the mediators in the indirect relationships of parental play support with children’s convergent thinking and divergent thinking, respectively. In contrast, the direct relations between parental play support and creative thinking processes were nonsignificant. The findings suggest that parents supporting household play might foster their children’s creative thinking processes by nurturing children’s playfulness. Practically, the findings underscore the importance of fostering creativity in the early years by promoting kindergarten children’s playfulness.