Creativity and academic achievement: A meta-analysis
Abstract
This article reports on a meta-analysis of 120 studies (total N = 52,578; 782 effects) examining the relationship between creativity and academic achievement in research conducted since the 1960s. Average correlation between creativity and academic achievement was r = .22, 95% CI [.19, .24]. An analysis of moderators revealed that this relationship was constant across time but stronger when creativity was measured using creativity tests compared to self-report measures and when academic achievement was measured using standardized tests rather than grade point average. Moreover, verbal tests of creativity yielded significantly stronger relationships with academic achievement than figural tests. Theoretical and practical consequences are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Perceived academic creativity is an indicator of academic achievement.
“PAC, as a combination of solution originality, novelty, and usefulness, is another indicator of academic achievement (Gajda et al., 2017).”
From College students’ literacy, ChatGPT activities, educational outcomes, and trust from a digital divide perspective (2026) · cites this paper as Gajda et al., 2017
The decrease in control groups' scores may be due to factors such as impoverishment of creativity or divergent thinking in the absence of stimulation, negative impact of the promotion of other more academic skills throughout the school year, or teachers' negative perceptions of students' behaviors associated with creativity or divergent thinking.
“These results may be due to multiple factors, such as the impoverishment of creativity or divergent thinking in the absence of stimulation, the negative impact of the promotion of other more academic skills throughout the school year, or even teachers' negative perceptions of students' behaviors associated with creativity or divergent thinking, as already evidenced by Gajda et al. (2017).”
From Creativity training programs in primary education: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as Gajda et al. (2017)
Cites
Self-efficacy: The exercise of control
Bandura, A., Freeman, W. H., & Lightsey, R. (1999) · Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy · doi:10.1891/0889-8391.13.2.158 · Cited by 46,835 · see citing works
Operating characteristics of a rank correlation test for publication bias
Begg, C. B., & Mazumdar, M. (1994) · Biometrics · doi:10.2307/2533446 · Cited by 16,955 · see citing works
Duval, S., & Tweedie, R. (2000) · Biometrics · doi:10.1111/j.0006-341x.2000.00455.x · Cited by 14,099 · see citing works
A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance.
Poropat, A. E. (2009) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0014996 · Cited by 2,729 · see citing works
On the Use of Beta Coefficients in Meta-Analysis.
Peterson, R. A., & Brown, S. P. (2005) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.90.1.175 · Cited by 1,643 · see citing works
P-curve: A key to the file-drawer.
Simonsohn, U., Nelson, L. D., & Simmons, J. P. (2014) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/a0033242 · Cited by 1,500 · see citing works
Stanley, T. D., & Doucouliagos, H. (2014) · Research Synthesis Methods · doi:10.1002/jrsm.1095 · Cited by 916 · see citing works
Fixed effects and variance components estimation in three-level meta-analysis
Konstantopoulos, S. (2011) · Research Synthesis Methods · doi:10.1002/jrsm.35 · Cited by 521 · see citing works
Jauk, E., Benedek, M., Dunst, B., & Neubauer, A. C. (2013) · Intelligence · doi:10.1016/j.intell.2013.03.003 · Cited by 476 · see citing works
The road to creative achievement: a latent variable model of ability and personality predictors
Jauk, E., Benedek, M., & Neubauer, A. C. (2014) · European Journal of Personality · doi:10.1002/per.1941 · Cited by 375 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Chow, J. C., & Ekholm, E. (2018) · Educational Psychology Review · doi:10.1007/s10648-018-9437-7 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Creativity training programs in primary education: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Ruiz-del-Pino, B., Fernández-Martín, F. D., & Arco-Tirado, J. L. (2022) · Thinking Skills and Creativity · doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2022.101172 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Zhang, C. (., Rice, R. E., & Wang, L. H. (2026) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/14614448241301741 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
“PAC, as a combination of solution originality, novelty, and usefulness, is another indicator of academic achievement (Gajda et al., 2017).”
Demangeon, A., Claudel-Valentin, S., Aubry, A., & Tazouti, Y. (2023) · Contemporary Educational Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2023.102182 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Creativity on tap? The effect of creativity anxiety under evaluative pressure
Bullock Muir, A., Tribe, B., & Forster, S. (2025) · Creativity Research Journal · doi:10.1080/10400419.2024.2330800 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Tao, Y., Wang, D., & Chen, G. (2026) · British Educational Research Journal · doi:10.1002/berj.70031 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Cristi-Montero, C., Solis-Urra, P., Sanchez-Martinez, J., Olivares-Arancibia, J., Hernández-Jaña, S., Gajardo-Araya, G., Palma-Leal, X., Sadarangani, K. P., Portela Estinto, M., Encina, Y., et al. (2022) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.917970 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Lucas, B. (2025) · The Journal of Creative Behavior · doi:10.1002/jocb.70067 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gajda, A., Karwowski, M., & Beghetto, R. A.
- Affiliations
- The Maria Grzegorzewska University (PL)
- University of Connecticut (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Educational Psychology
- Published
- 2017-02
- Volume
- 109
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 269-299
- ISSN
- 0022-0663 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2176
- OpenAlex
- W2516549643
- Cited by
- 515
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 54 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 85 · 2023: 62 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 65 · 2020: 42 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 5
- FWCI
- 34.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Educational Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Centre (UMO-2011/03/N/HS6/05073)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychological and Educational Research Studies
- Keywords
- creativity, academic performance, creativity tests, self-report measures, standardized testing, grade point average
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
