Content uploaded by Macarena-Paz Celume
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Macarena-Paz Celume on Oct 25, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
346
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDREN’S
CREATIVITY AND WELL-BEING AT SCHOOL
MACARENA-PAZ CELUME, LAURENT SOVET,
TODD LUBART & FRANCK ZENASNI
Links between creativity and well-being have been examined in multiple
studies (e.g. Cropley 1990, Maslow, 1954; Richards, 2010; Rogers, 1961). If,
most of these researches were focused on adults, some of them also examine
the cases of children and tend to show that creativity and well-being are posi-
tively related (Barnes, 2014). If the occurrence of this positive relationship
seems to be systematic, there is no clear explanation nor description of the
reasons and/or the nature of this inherent relationship. Thus, this chapter aims
to explain how and why promoting creativity in children may be good for
their well-being and vice versa. For that purpose, we will examine how spe-
cific trainings can enhance creative outcomes that may be related to well-
being.
We will start by explaining what is known today as children’s well-being
through the different conceptualizations of child’s well-being. Afterwards,
more specifically, in order to clarify the possible link between creativity and
well-being in children, this chapter will review embodied creativity trainings
and creative school initiatives that might impact well-being and synthesize
the initial studies in a comprehensive framework for future work.
1. Conceptualizations of child well-being
There is a vast literature on child well-being and it continues to expand rapid-
ly (Amerijckx & Humblet, 2014; Ben-Arieh, Casas, Frønes, & Korbin, 2014;
Casas, 2011; Pollard & Lee, 2003). A broad definition was recently proposed
by Ben-Arieh and Frønes (2007, p. 1): “Child well-being encompasses quality
of life in a broad sense. It refers to a child’s economic conditions, peer rela-
tions, political rights, and opportunities for development. Most studies focus
on certain aspects of children’s well-being, often emphasizing social and cul-
tural variations. Thus, any attempts to grasp well-being in its entirety must
use indicators on a variety of aspects of well-being.”
While the multidimensional nature of the concept is widely recog-
nized by researchers and policymakers, the elaboration of consensual, unified,
and inclusive comprehensive framework for child well-being remains largely
unresolved despite several attempts during the last decades (Ben-Arieh et al.,
2014; Ben-Arieh & Frønes, 2011; Minkkinen, 2013; Raghavan & Alexan-
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
347
drova, 2015). Drawing a complete review of child well-being indicators and
their multiple conceptualizations could be particularly ambitious in the pre-
sent chapter (for a comprehensive review, see Ben-Arieh et al., 2014). In con-
trary, several critical components are briefly introduced in order to offer a
better understanding of their relationships with creativity.
Objective or subjective indicators. A distinction is often made between
objective and subjective indicators of child well-being. The first social indica-
tors emerged in the 1960s were exclusively focused on objective external
conditions such as material resources, safety, mental and physical mental,
human rights, and so forth (Axfort, Jodreel, & Hobbs, 2014). However, it
appeared that the objective indicators were not enough to capture the com-
plexity of social realities. Subjective indicators were progressively developed
and integrated in order to take into account the children’s own perspective
about the perceptions, evaluations, and aspirations regarding their lives
(Casas, 2011). Currently, objective and subjective indicators are articulating
together for providing a more holistic understanding of child well-being.
Based on a systematic review of literature, Pollard and Lee (2003) found that
subjective indicators of child well-being were more diverse and heterogene-
ous compared to objective indicators. Such heterogeneity may be explained
by the fact that subjective indicators are also driven by various epistemolo-
gies (for a review, see Casas, 2011).
Subjective well-being or psychological well-being. Drawn from the science
of positive psychology, subjective indicators are divided into two different
conceptual terms: subjective well-being (SWB) and psychological well-being
(PWB). SWB is based on a hedonic approach of happiness and can be defined
as “a broad category of phenomena that includes people’s emotional respons-
es, domain satisfactions, and global judgments of life satisfaction” (Diener,
Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999, p. 277). Accordingly, it includes both cognitive
(i.e., life satisfaction) and affective components (i.e., positive and negative
emotions). In contrary, PWB refers to a eudemonic approach of happiness
and relates to psychological functioning and personal growth (Ryff, 1989).
Although these definitions were primarily adult-centered, several authors
highlighted their relevance for examining the children’s perception of their
own well-being (Amerijckx & Humblet, 2014; Ben-Arieh et al., 2014; Hueb-
ner, 2004).
2. Creativity and well-being in children: what are the relation-
ships?
Some specific theories tend to explain how creativity and well-being in chil-
dren are related. For instance, Carson, Bittner, Cameron, Brown and Meyer
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
348
(1994) explained the relationship of children’s stress responses and coping
abilities, two well-being indicators, with creative thinking. In their study, they
found a strong correlations between coping abilities and flexibility, fluency
and originality. They discussed that the ability to have flexible thinking and
have a fluent and original generation of ideas contribute in a significant way
to successful coping abilities. The capacity to think creatively might influence
the finding of novel solutions to problems and situations; thus, favouring cop-
ing stress abilities and so influencing positive emotions and well-being.
Considering empirical researches, there are different kind of studies show-
ing that creativity and some indicators of well-being are positively related.
The first kind showed that positive emotional states favor creative
performances. In that way, Morrongiello, Stewart, Pope, Pogrebtsova and
Boulay (2015), conducted a study in which they inducted 68 children with a
positive and a neutral mood, revealing that children showed greater risk-
taking attempts when they were in a positive mood state compared with a
neutral one. They concluded that a positive mood state could be associated
with greater risk-taking in elementary-school children. In this way, positive
mood state was related with risk taking, which is a cognitive mediator of cre-
ativity.
In other investigations, researchers showed that self-report well-being
is positively correlated to creativity. For example, in 1990, Cropley studied
the relationship between mental health and creativity, taking in account sever-
al authors that proposed creativity elements as part of feeling well. He estab-
lished a relationship between psychological aspects of personality and crea-
tivity, establishing that most of the characteristics of a creative person, such
as flexibility, openness, humor or playfulness among others, are similar prop-
erties of those of a healthy personality. For him, the enhancement of mental
health, a concept related to well-being, should be achieved through the en-
couragement of people to perceive and live their quotidian lives in a creative
manner. Some decades before, in 1971, and republished in 1976, Maslow
proposed a more holistic point of view, establishing that there wasn’t just a
single thing that helped develop creativeness. For him, there were several
determinants for creativity, and these determinants were intimately related
with the enhancing of the psychological health of the human being. He said
that the way to the growth of psychological health will change the person in
all ways, driving him or her to be a fuller person. “This more fully human,
healthier person would then, epiphenomenally, generate and spark off dozens,
hundreds, and millions of differences in behaving, experiencing, perceiving,
communicating, teaching, working, etc., which would all be more
“creative”.” (p.74). Carl Rogers, also a humanistic psychologist, shared
Maslow’s perception of a human natural tendency to self-actualization con-
sidering that well-being was directly related to the fulfillment of one’s growth
potential. For him, creativity was one of the five basic characteristics to
achieve what he understood as well-being, establishing that risk taking, as a
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
349
part of creative thinking was a fundamental part in the life of a “fully func-
tioning person” (Rogers, 1961). These examples, that are only a few among
several others, show how in both perspectives -from positive emotional states
to creativity and from creativity to positive emotional states- authors have
been interested and studied this relationship in adults. Nevertheless, this rela-
tionship in children’s population remains less studied, and so, less clear.
In a study measuring the impact of some well-being initiatives in
schools (Galton & Page, 2015) it was shown that schools that were engaged
in a Creative Partnership developed some children’s personal competences
that might be linked to well-being. The Creative Partnership is an english
initiative to promote creativity all along the scholar curriculum. Different
artists engaged with schools in order to develop projects together. Galton and
Page (2015) highlight the report of Ofted (2010 in Galton & Page, 2015) in
which he suggests that this Creative Partnership (CP) could transform chil-
dren’s life because of the impact on their self-confidence and self-esteem. For
Galton and Page (2015) this enhancement would play a direct role in the en-
hancement of well-being through an hedonic and eudaimonic point of view
(see Peterson & Seligman, 2004). From another well-being perspective, Gal-
ton and Page (2015) analyzed the way of doing pedagogy of the schools en-
gaged in CP, and found that primary schools preferred exploratory children-
centered pedagogies, establishing learning objectives according to children’s
experiences. According to Galton and Page (2015) the motivation theory sup-
ports this kind of pedagogy as “these shifts away from default pedagogy
should promote a greater sense of well-being” (p.2, Deci and Ryan, 2008 in
Galton and Page, 2015). Some of the outcomes found by the study of Galton
and Page were related to children’s feeling of autonomy, and of being capable
or good at doing something in addition to a sense of belonging to their
schools. These outcomes made them think in a direct relationship with Ryan
and Deci’s (2000) Self-Determination Theory (SDT) that proposes that the
achievement of well-being is given through the fulfillment of three basic
needs: Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness. Hence, the implications of
Creative Partnerships in schools promoted well-being through the enhance-
ment of heudonic and eudaimonic (Seligman, 2000) happiness and through
the fullfillment of the basic needs of competence, autonomy and fulfillness
(Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Most recently, as part of an ongoing investigation, Celume, Besan-
çon and Zenasni (ICEI, 2017) showed how positive emotions were inducted
on 385 children, seeking to find a relationship with creative thinking and
emotional intelligence. These results weren’t entirely satisfactory so as a sec-
ond approach they decided to come from the other way round, studying the
possibility of conducting a creativity training based in novel pedagogies that
would have an influence on children’s well-being. The first pilot was tested
on 209 school children from 8 to 10 years old, from three different schools.
Results showed an increase of positive emotions of the 150 children aged 9-
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
350
10 that participated in the experimental training over those children partici-
pating in the control training. Details will be explained below.
3. Embodied creativity trainings and their impact on children’s
well-being:
According to Byrge and Tang (2015) there are two approaches of creativity
trainings: embodied creativity training and reflective creativity training. The
first one is focused on the development of the participant’s creative abilities,
while the other, focuses more on the development of creativity metacognition
(theories, techniques, processes). For our analyses we will consider the first
group of creativity trainings, more related to active exercises like game based
trainings, arts based trainings and creative drama trainings.
As seen above, creativity has been proved to be related to creativity (Carson
et al., 1994; Galton and Page, 2015; Morrongiello et al. 2015) but how a crea-
tivity training may affect children’s well-being is still an object of study.
Most of creative training workshops for children use play as a center
of their programs. This decision, is probably made, because play is an activity
that children chose in a free and happy way (Huizinga, 1950). When working
with children, we can observe how they are immersed in the game when play-
ing, and so they are able to find several solutions while being entirely com-
mitted to the act of playing. Csikszentmihalyi (2009) explains this as the flow
experience, when the action is made just for the sake of doing it, permitting
him/her self to be creative and to feel intrinsically motivated. Thus, play will
be increasing children’s well-being. Piaget (1962) points out a relationship
between play and creativity, noting that there is something innate in playful-
ness that permits creative imagination to develop. Moreover, in a study made
in 2012, by Hoffman and Russ, showed how pretend play contributed to crea-
tive learning, and several other studies show how play is related to creativity
in several manners (e.g. Berretta and Privette, 1990; Christie and Johnsen,
1983; Kogan, 1983; Krasnor and Pepler, 1980 ; Sutton-Smith, 1979). In order
to clearly see the relationship between creativity and well-being in children,
we are going to present some studies made in different countries that ana-
lyzed and tested different creative approaches and how their outcomes are
related to well-being.
In a study made with primary school children in Korea by Shin &
Jang (2015), they found that the most effective way to build children’s team
work and social well-being, is to use play in group creativity trainings. They
suggest that these activities in creative trainings permit children to enjoy alto-
gether, and mentions that it allows them to laugh, feel better, and have fun at
the same time (p.7). They also show motivational outcomes of group creativi-
ty trainings, showing that although the differences in children’s personality,
after a creativity training, students felt more motivated. This, related to group
commitment and a subjective sensation of effectiveness. As we saw, the need
of feeling valuable for doing something is an important factor for increasing
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
351
intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000), and according to Shin & Jang
(2015) these can be achieved through creativity trainings. Group creativity
trainings provide a safe environment in which children can freely play, devel-
oping positive emotions, group cohesion and group creativity. In this line,
play enhance positive emotions which suggest that creativity training based
on play may enhance children’s well-being through the development of posi-
tive emotions.
Ebert and Hoffmann (2015) made a study that started the validation
of an emotion and creativity skills development training through the observa-
tion of arts and art making activities. The workshop was tested on spanish
children aged 6 to 12 years old. They suggested that according to some au-
thors, like Winner, Goldstein and Vincent-Lancrin (2014) arts in general, may
enhance quotidien creativity through the encouragement of creative thinking
abilities. They trained two facilitators that conducted the six-session training,
targeting a specific emotion in each of the 5 first sessions. The results of this
training corresponded to their hypothesis, developing emotional and creative
skills, but what’s interesting for our analyses is that children reported to feel
more motivated for this kind of creative workshop, or that they would seek
for other workshops of this kind. Also, there was a child that expressed that
he learned how to voice his own opinion, thus can be related to the cognitive
mediator aspect of creativity known as risk-taking. Risk taking can be related
to Ryan and Deci’s SDT (2000), in which autonomy, another fundamental for
intrinsic motivation is described as the perception that there are choices to be
made, and that the person can “self-determine” what to think or to do. The
ability of taking risks and sharing one's ideas or opinions, develops this per-
ception of self-determination which would positively affect children’s intrin-
sic motivation and this well-being. Children in the workshop also commented
to be more motivated after the training, highlighting their interest in art appre-
ciation and art making domains. In any case, the researchers point out that
there was an initial interest in art based activities, so they expressed that tak-
ing in account the relationship established by other authors between intrinsic
motivation and creativity (Amabile, 1996), this initial motivation might have
helped the enhancement of creativity.
Also in 2015, in China, Hui, Chow, Chan, Chui and Sam made a two
-study-research of Hong Kong classrooms and creativity. The topic of well-
being is directly addressed in the study, as the authors state that academic
success in an Asian school doesn’t allow a place for happiness; rather learn-
ing is a “serious work” (p. 3) They also consider the results of some studies
that suggest a link between creativity and the development of personal and
intellectual skills in children (e.g. Sylva, 1984; Veraska, 2011). Personal
skills development is one key need in Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy model of of
well-being. For him, in fact, the final step in the pyramid of needs is self-
actualization, which can be seen as personal development, growth and fulfill-
ment. So, in order to see the outcomes of creative education in children, they
conducted a first study, implementing a creative-arts training in line with the
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
352
curriculum for chinese kindergartens. This creative training lasted 8 weeks,
and integrated linguistic, dance, music and visual arts in order to stimulate
curiosity. This first study had positive outcomes in creativity, enhancing also
personal skills. These skills developments suggest an increase in children’s
well-being considering Maslow’s (1943) pyramide and the fact that creative
thinking has already been related to positive emotions, which is one key com-
ponent of Seligman’s PERMA model (2011).
Creative drama trainings and children’s well-being
In the example above, we have seen how Hui et al (2015) were able to prove
that an arts-based training could improve children’s well-being in Hong Kong
students. In their second study from the same research, they used a drama-
based creative training. The drama-based creative training showed an increase
of creativity and other personal skills. It was also noted that children in the
second study were favoured to practice reflective thinking, understanding of
abstract concepts, play, exploration and imagination. As we have previously
seen, play is directly related to well-being through the enhancement of posi-
tive emotions and the experience of flow in children. In the same line, the
encouragement of imagination development could also be linked to children’s
well-being. Children’s development of imagination might help them to con-
sider new solutions and ideas through imagining new possibilities helping the
development of flexible thinking and perspective taking. Thus, taking Ryan &
Deci’s (2000) model of well-being, perspective taking would help fulfilling
their need of competence by showing the child other options and solutions
and by other hand, from Seligman’s (2011) ‘PERMA’ model, in where posi-
tive relationships are basic elements of well-being, enhancing imagination
and thus perspective taking, would also develop positive relationships by let-
ting the child imagine being another and seeing other possibilities by taking
another’s perspective. This, would help the child to understand other’s ideas
and opinions, helping him/her develop empathy, and thus positive relation-
ships towards others.
In another study, leaded at Taiwan by Yeh and Li in 2008, they also
conducted a creativity training based in creative drama. They tested this crea-
tivity training in order to see its impact on creativity, as well as the effect of
age, emotion regulation and temperament on creativity. The study well con-
firmed that creative drama training was positively related to creativity en-
hancement. Creativity was also related to emotion regulation strategies,
showing that emotional regulation has a positive influence over children’s
creativity. Emotional regulation is the capacity of using strategies for observ-
ing, appraising and modifying emotional responses (Mayer & Salovey, 1997;
Gullone & Taffe, 2012) to emotional experiences. Identified by Mayer and
Salovey (1997) as a core element of Emotional Intelligence, emotional regu-
lation has been related to the capacity of responding to unpleasant events in a
healthy way or the capacity of successfully coping with stress. Individuals
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
353
with higher emotional regulation will search for response strategies that
would enhance positive emotions instead of strategies that will lead negative
emotions, like frustration. In sum, Yeh and Li (2008) found that emotion reg-
ulation strategies had a positive influence over children’s creativity. The fact
that a higher emotional regulation had a positive effect on children’s creativi-
ty, lead us to suggest that positive emotions, are enhanced through emotion
regulation strategies, influencing creative thinking. Zenasni and Lubart
(2002) already showed how positive emotions could increase creativity.
Moreover, as Yeh and Li (2008) highlights, Lubart and Getz (1997) proposed
that positive emotions might promote creative thinking because of their rela-
tionship with finding problems and insightful solutions. So as Seligman
(2011) proposes, positive emotions are a core element of well-being, in this
line children’s well-being will be directly related to creativity, being well-
being a booster of children’s creative thinking.
Barnes (2014) between 2011 and 2012 gathered an important num-
ber of outcomes related to the basis of a drama based training and well-being
development. In his work, he presents the outcomes of the Speech Bubbles
project, a drama based program that aimed to develop several skills in chil-
dren with communication difficulties. It is important to remark, that this pro-
gram was not only a drama-based program, but was mostly based in creative
drama characteristics that are related with directed play and games focusing
on the process of learning over an artistic end. This programme was conduct-
ed in England for six and seven-year-old children and devised by theatre
practitioners. The program had already a theoretical framework based in posi-
tive emotions and play. Frederickson’s theory on positive emotions (2004)
was a key model for the development of the program, as well as Paley’s
(2004) approach to education through play. Frederickson (2009) suggests that
the development of positive emotions permit us build up mental, social and
physical resources, fundamental for developing the capacity to effectively
overcome tragic events or difficulties in life. By her side, Paley (2004) claims
that a powerful tool for securing children’s psychological and social develop-
ment is through fantasy play. The results of this creative drama training were
quite positive, enhancing communication skills, collaborative behaviour and
several positive emotions observed during the nine months of duration of the
program. Positive emotions expressed by the researchers were, for example
joy and love that were observed in children’s body language, expression and
interactions with the practitioners. Other positive emotions that were outlined
were interest and engagement. As we have seen, interest is the basic compo-
nent of intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation in the SDT theory (Ryan and
Deci, 2000) is the kind of motivation that comes from the inside of the person
when the activity or situation the person is in, is being performed just for the
sake of doing it. This, fulfills basic needs that lead to well-being. In a similar
way of Csikszentmihalyi's (2009) theory of flow suggests that when the per-
son is fully engaged to a situation, the flow sensation appears and this sensa-
tion conducts to experiencing well-being. Both positive emotions, interest and
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
354
engagement have been proved to be related to the well-being experience. The
other positive emotions that were named, can also be related to a well-being’s
theory. According to Seligman’s (2011) PERMA model and the happiness
theory, positive emotions are the basis for developing well-being. Also, the
subjective perception of positive emotions is a key indicator of subjective
well-being. Barnes (2014) claims that these positive emotions, that have been
observed in children through body expression, were well-being indicators that
were improved and sustained in 75% of the participants. Moreover he propos-
es that respect and the active listening presence of practitioners may give “the
sense of environmental and self-control identified by Ryff (1989) as essential
components of well-being.”(p.108). In sum, although this example is more
related to a drama games training and its relationship with well-being, it is
important to note that creative drama training is based in a drama pedagogy
games that have shown to enhance creative thinking as a primary outcome
(e.g. Karakelle, 2009; Hui et al., 2015).
The last example that we will analyze is currently being held with
primary school children in France. An ongoing research, presented at the In-
ternational Conference of Emotional Intelligence, in Porto, 2017, still on data
analyses phase, has been made (Celume et al., ICEI, 2017) carrying out two
studies and it was held in order to develop creativity and emotional intelli-
gence in primary school children. The first part of this ongoing research was
conducted at the end of 2016, and failed to prove that positive emotions had a
positive influence over creative thinking using creative drawing tasks. It was
concluded that these unexpected results could be explained by a lack of un-
derstanding of the given instructions by children that forced to take off almost
the half of the participants’ drawings. However, these results led us to look at
this relationship between creativity and positive emotions from another per-
spective. This perspective focused on the effects of creativity on children’s
well-being and positive emotions, finding several studies that proposed games
as a motor for creativity and positive emotional outcomes (e.g. Berretta and
Privette, 1990; Moore & Russ, 2008). What motivated the attention, was that
several of these studies, proposed dramatic games as part of their trainings, so
it was decided to focus on these kinds of games in order to create a training.
As part of the research, we found the validated program of Maite Garaigordo-
bil’s “Programa Juego” (2003, 2016) that specialized in the creation of crea-
tivity and collaborative games programs for school aged children in Spain.
We also looked at other non-scientific publications made by different authors
(Garcia-Huidobro, 2004; Kende, 2014; Boal,1989; Hammond, 2015) creating
a pilot training made by the adaptation of Garaigordobil program (2003,
2016) because of her focus on 8 to 10 year-old children. In addition, we used
some activities found in Garcia-Huidobro’s (2004) and Boal’s (1989) books.
For this second study, 209 children between 8 to 10 years old participated,
resulting in positive outcomes for 150 children aged 9 to 10 years old, in both
creative thinking and positive emotions. Children who attended the drama
games pedagogy training scored higher in the divergent thinking drawing task
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
355
over those children attending the sportive games training. This study also
showed an increase of positive emotions after each session, being also higher
in contrast to their sportive games attending classmates (t=3,7 p<.00). One of
the conclusions of this study, that were presented at the conference, was that
the fact of being involved in creative dramatic games and activities, made the
children feel better than those children involved in a more competitive train-
ing. This could be explained by the engagement and sense of collective
achievement given in the creative dramatic games and activities in which
there were no winners and losers, but only a sharing of the collective process
and the achieved result, which was a process itself. For Seligman (2011) four
important aspects of his well-being model the “PERMA”, are positive emo-
tions and relationships, engagement and achievement. When children were
participating in some of the drama pedagogy games, they were building new
positive relationships with people they have not met before, even if they were
in the same classroom. As some of the children said, they were happy be-
cause they have realized that they could be able to play with some people
they thought they did not like, with whom they have not even talked before,
and now they are closer. Children build new positive relationships with others
bringing them positive emotions. This, could be also taken as an achievement
itself. Nevertheless, what Seligman (2011) explains as Achievement (or Ac-
complishement in his words) is the achievement of doing something for its
own sake, just because. During the drama pedagogy games, it was also ob-
served how children were immersed in the activity they were doing, they
were interested and concentrated in the game. In most of the activities, they
played to be someone or something else, just playing because of the sake of
doing it, at the point of having some of the children continuing their charac-
ters after the training session was finished. Similar as to what Csikszent-
mihalyi (2009) says, this immersion in the game, brings an estate of full en-
joyment, of flow. Csikszentmihalyi (2009) Flow theory, says that being inter-
ested, concentrated and enjoying an activity at the same time permits flow to
occur. He stated that flow is achieved through creative and artistic activities,
when they represent a challenge that is achievable for the people pursuing the
challenge, but that still challenges them (Admiraal & Huizenga, 2011).
Hence, this pilot program achieved getting the children in a flow state
through fully engagement in creative drama games that challenged them to
solve different problems and situations. This iswhat might have helped en-
hance divergent thinking. This work, also let them develop positive emotions
for both the games and their classmates and helped them find new solutions
in a collaborative way. Solutions were encouraged to be developed by listen-
ing to others’ opinions and ideas and by presenting their own perspectives, so
they could practice seeing ways from a different approach and enhancing
their ability of finding and defending their own ideas or solutions. As some of
the children said, they did learn to be able to speak out their own ideas or
solutions in front of the group. Hence, the drama pedagogy games training
pilot, established a link between some creative aspects such as perspective
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
356
taking, solution finding and risk taking, through the engagement in playful
and creative games, teaching them to experiment with flow and feel positive
emotions, which was measured through a self-response scale, taken as an
expression of the increase of their subjective well-being.
Concluding thoughts
In the table shown below we describe the trainings analyzed, their outcomes
and how they are related to different well-being theories.
Creative Train-
ing or Creative
Initiative
Coun-
try
Outcomes related with
well-being
Reference
Creative Partner-
ship workshops
Eng-
land
• Self- confidence
• Self-esteem
• Autonomy
• Sense of capabil-
ity
• Sense of belong-
ing
Galton, M., &
Page, C. (2015).
Group Play work-
shops
Korea • Motivation
• Sense of group
commitment
• Sense of effec-
tiveness
• Positive emotions
Shin, N., and
Jang, Y-J.
(2015).
Arts appreciation
and art making
workshop
Spain • Risk taking
• motivation
Ebert, M., Hoff-
mann, J.D.,
Ivcevic, Z.,
Phan, C., Brack-
ett, M. (2015).
Linguistic, dance,
music, visual arts
(creative-arts
workshop)
China • Positive emotions Hui, A.N.N.,
Chow, B. W.Y.,
Chan, A.Y.T.,
Chui, B.H.T,
Sam, C.T.
(2015).
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
357
These analyses have shown how creative trainings and initiatives
can be related to the enhancement and development of children’s well-being.
Most of the presented trainings were created through a play perspective, con-
sidering that children feel free and happier to engage in play. Another obser-
vation that arises, is that most successful creative trainings that relate to well-
being, are based in active-engaging artistic activities, like visual arts or dra-
ma. A final observation that can be made is that most of the analysed train-
ings claim positive emotions as a core outcome of their programs.
Children’s creativity has been proved to be enhanced through train-
ing, although children’s well-being is still a subject of discussion. Neverthe-
less, the enhancement of motivation, self-confidence and positive emotions in
the classroom seem to be like a good starting point to continue in the research
of fostering children’s and adolescent’s well-being in school contexts.
Creative drama
workshop
China • Playfulness
• Positive emotions
• Imagination
• Perspective tak-
ing
• Positive relation-
ships
Hui, A.N.N.,
Chow, B. W.Y.,
Chan, A.Y.T.,
Chui, B.H.T,
Sam, C.T.
(2015).
Creative drama
workshop
Tai-
wan
• Emotion regula-
tion strategies
• Positive emotions
Yeh, Y-C., Li,
M-L. (2008)
Speech Bubbles,
Creative Drama
workshop
Eng-
land
• Positive emo-
tions: joy, love
• Engagement
• Interest
Barnes, J.
(2014)
Drama pedagogy
workshop
(Creative drama
based)
France • Positive emotions
• Engagement
• Sense of collec-
tive achievement
• Positive relation-
ships
• Motivation
Celume, M-P.,
Besançon, M.,
Zenasni, F.
(2017).
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
358
References
Admiraal, W., Huizenga, J., Akkerman, S. ,ten Dama, G. (2011). The concept
of flow in collaborative game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior,
27, 1185–1194.
Amabile, T.M., (1996). Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology
of creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Amerijckx, G., & Humblet, P. C. (2014). Child well-being: what does it
mean? Children & Society, 28(5), 404–415. doi:10.1111/chso.12003
Axford, N., Jodrell, D., & Hobbs, T. (2014). Objective or subjective well-
being. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frønes, & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook
of child well-being: Theories, methods and policies in global perspectives
(pp. 2699–2738). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Barnes, J. (2014). Drama to promote social and personal well-being in six-
and seven-year-olds with communication difficulties: the Speech Bubbles
project. Perspectives in Public Health, 134, 2, 101-109.
Ben-Arieh, A., & Frønes, I. (2007). Indicators of children’s well being: What
should be measured and why? Social Indicators Research, 84(3), 249–250.
doi:10.1007/s11205-007-9183-6
Ben-Arieh, A., & Frønes, I. (2011). Taxonomy for child well-being indica-
tors: A framework for the analysis of the well-being of children. Childhood,
18(4), 460–476. doi:10.1177/0907568211398159
Ben-Arieh, A., Casas, F., Frønes, I., & Korbin, J. E. (2014). Multifaceted
concept of child well-being. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frønes, & J. E.
Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being: Theories, methods and policies
in global perspectives (pp. 1–27). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Berretta, S., Privette, G. (1990) Influence of play on creative thinking. Per-
ceptual and motor skills, 71, 659-666.
Boal, A. (1989, 2014). Juegos para actores y no actores (Vol. 60). Alba edito-
rial.
Byrge C. and Tang, C. (2015) Embodied creativity training: effects on crea-
tive self-efficacy and creative production. Thinking Skills and creativity. 16,
51-61.
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
359
Carson, D. K., Bittner, M. T., Cameron, B. R., Brown, D. M., & Meyer, S. S.
(1994). Creative thinking as a predictor of school‐aged children's stress re-
sponses and coping abilities. Creativity Research Journal, 7(2), 145-158.
Casas, F. (2011). Subjective social indicators and child and adolescent well-
being. Child Indicators Research, 4(4), 555–575. doi:10.1007/s12187-010-
9093-z
Celume, M-P., Besançon,M., Zenasni, F. (2017). The impact of a drama ped-
agogy training on children’s creativity and emotional intelligence. Poster
presentation at the 7th International Conference on Emotional Intelligence,
Porto, 2017.
Christie, J.F., Johnsen, E.P. (1983). The role of play in social-intellectual de-
velopment. Review of educational research, 53, 93-115.
Cropley, A. J. (1990). Creativity and mental health in everyday life. Creativi-
ty Research Journal, 13 (3) 167-178.
Csikszentmihaly, M. (2009). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience.
Harper Collins.
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective Well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 3, 542-
575.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-
being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276–302.
doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.2.276
Deci & Ryan (2008). Self-Determination Theory: A Macrotheory of Human
Motivation, Development, and Health. Canadian Psychology, 49, 3, 182-185.
Ebert, M., Hoffmann, J.D., Ivcevic, Z., Phan, C., Brackett, M. (2015) Teach-
ing emotion and creativity skills through art: a workshop for children. The
international journal of creativity and problem solving, 25, 2, 23-35.
Frederickson, B. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.
Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 359.
Frederickson, B. (2009).Positivity. New York: Crown.
Galton, M.,Page, C. (2015). The impact of various creative initiatives on well
-being: a study of children in English primary schools. Cambridge Journal of
Education, 45(3), 349-369.
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
360
Garaigordobil, M. (2003, 2016) Programa Juego. Juegos cooperativos y crea-
tivos para grupos de niños de 8 a 10 años. Madrid: Ediciones Pirámide.
García-Huidobro, V. (2004) Pedagogía Teatral. Una metodología activa en el
aula. Santiago de Chile: Ed. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Gullone, E., Taffe, J. (2012) The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Chil-
dren and Adolescents (ERQ-CA): A Psychometric Evaluation. Psychological
Assessment, 24, 2, 409-417.
Hammond, N. (2015) Forum Theatre for Children. Enhancing social, emo-
tional and creative development. London: IOE Press.
Hoffmann, J., Russ, S. (2012) Pretend Play, Creativity, and Emotion Regula-
tion in Children. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts 6:175–84.
Huebner, E. S. (2004). Research on assessment of life satisfaction of children
and adolescents. Social Indicators Research, 66(1–2), 3–33. doi:10.1023/
b:soci.0000007497.57754.e3
Hui, A.N.N., Chow, B. W.Y., Chan, A.Y.T., Chui, B.H.T, Sam, C.T. (2015)
Creativity in Hong Kong classrooms: transition from a seriously formal peda-
gogy to informally playful learning. Education, 3-13.
Huizinga, J. (1950) Homo ludens: a study of the play element in culture. Bos-
ton, MA: Beacon Press.
Karakelle, S. (2009). Enhancing Fluent And Flexible Thinking Through The
Creative Drama Process. Thinking Skills And Creativity 4. 124-129.
Kende, H. (2014). Psychodrame avec les enfants. Fabert. Paris: Fabert.
Kogan, N. (1983) Stylistic variation in childhood and adolescence: creativity
metaphor, and cognitive styles. In J.H. Flavell and E. Markman (Eds.) Cogni-
tive Development, 3. New York: Wiley, 630-706.
Krasnor, L. R., Pepler, D.J. (1980). The study of children’s play: some sug-
gested further directions. New directions for child development, 9, 85-94.
Lubart, T., Getz, I. (1997) Emotion, Metaphor, and the Creative Process. Cre-
ativity Research, 10-4, 285-301.
Maslow, A. (1943). “A Theory of Human Motivation”, Psychological Re-
view, vol. 50, no 4, juillet 1943, p. 370-396.
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
361
Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper &
Brothers.
Maslow, A. (1971). The farther reaches of human nature. New York: The
Viking Press.
Mayer, D., Salovey, P. (1997). What is Emotional Intelligence? In P. Salovey
& D. J. Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional development and emotional intelligence:
Educational Implications (p 3-31) New York: Basic.
Minkkinen, J. (2013). The structural model of child well-being. Child Indica-
tors Research, 6(3), 547–558. doi:10.1007/s12187-013-9178-6
Moore, M. & Russ, S. (2008). Follow-up of a Pretend Play Intervention: Ef-
fects on Play, Creativity, and Emotional Processes in Children. Creativity
Research Journal, 20, 4, 427-436.
Morrongiello, B., Stewart, J., Pope, K., Pogrebtsova, E., Boulay, K-J. (2015).
Exploring Relations Between Positive Mood State and School-Age Chil-
dren’s Risk Taking. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 40(4) pp. 406–418.
Paley, V. (2004) A child’s work: The importance of fantasy play. Chicago:
Chicago University Press.
Peterson, C., Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). Character strenghts and Virtues. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Piaget, J. (1962) Play, dreams and imitation in childhood. New york: Norton
Pollard, E. L., & Lee, P. D. (2003). Child well-being: A systematic review of
the literature. Social Indicators Research, 61(1), 59–78. doi:10.1023/
a:1021284215801
Raghavan, R., & Alexandrova, A. (2015). Toward a theory of child well-
being. Social Indicators Research, 121(3), 887–902. doi:10.1007/s11205-014
-0665-z
Richards, R. (2010). Everyday creativity. The Cambridge handbook of crea-
tivity, 189-215.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). Toward a theory of creativity. On Becoming a person.
Boston: Houghter Mifflin.-1961.
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
362
Ryan R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-Determination Theory and Facilitation
of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being. American Psy-
chologist, 55, 1, 68-78.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the
meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psy-
chology, 57(6), 1069–1081. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069
Seligman, M.E.P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happi-
ness and well-being. New York: Free Press.
Shin, N., and Jang, Y-J. (2015). Group Creativity Training for Children: Les-
sons Learned from two Award-Winning Teams. The Journal of Creative Be-
haviour, 0, 0, 1-19.
Sutton-Smith, B. (1979). Play and learning. New york: Gardner Press.
Sylva, K. (1984). A hard headed look at the fruits of play. Early Child Devel-
opment Care, 15, 2-3, 171-183.
Veraska, N.E. (2011) Development of cognitive capacities in preschool age.
International journal of early years education, 19,1,79-87.
Winner, E., Goldstein, T.R., Vincent-Lancrin, S. (2014). Does arts education
foster creativity? The evidence so far. In L.O’Farrell, S. Schonmann, E. Wag-
ner (Eds.) Internatinal Yearbook for Research in Arts Education, 2 (pp.95-
100) Hong Kong: Waxmann Verlag.
Yeh, Y-C., Li, M-L. (2008). Age, Emotion Regulation Strategies, Tempera-
ment, Creative Drama and Preschoolers’ Creativity. Journal of Creative Be-
haviour, 42, 2, 131-148.
Zenasni F.,& Lubart T. (2002). Effects of mood states on creativity. Current
Psychology Letters: Behavior, Brain and Cognition, 2, 33–50.
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND WELLBEING
363
