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Previous literature has suggested that creative students often have difficulties adapting to academic and social contexts, even if they are intellectually gifted (Goertzel & Goertzel, 1960; Kim, 2008). Creative individuals' difficulties in social adaptation can be explained better by introducing the concept of self-regulation, since self-regulation has been found to be a strong predictor of one's academic success, school engagement, and peer social acceptance (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005). Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between creative potential and self-regulation among gifted young adults. In addition, this study aims to examine the moderating effects of parenting styles on that relationship.
Participants in this study were 311 high achieving students who participated in the Honors Program at the Midwestern University. Their creative potential was assessed by the Runco Ideation Behavior Scale (Runco, Plucker, & Lim, 2001). Results showed that there was no relationship between creative potential and short-term self-regulation. However, creative potential was positively related to the long-term self-regulation of gifted young adults after controlling the effect of gender and semester in the college/university, although it was a small correlation (partial r=.132, p
Findings from this study refute the position that gifted individuals' creative potential may relate negatively to their self-regualtion capacities Findings also suggest that authoritative parenting can nurture children's long-term self-regulation without hindering creative potential development.