Student creative thinking in East Asia: The role of extracurricular activities and supportive environments

Creative thinking is increasingly recognized as a critical competency for academic and lifelong success. Drawing on data from 16,893 students in the Four Asian Tigers—Singapore, Hong Kong-China, South Korea, and Chinese Taipei—this study investigates the direct and indirect effects of extracurricular activities and supportive environments on East Asian students’ creative thinking. Results from structural equation modeling reveals that in-school activities, particularly those emphasizing expression and STEM domains, positively predict creative thinking via enhanced intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and risk-taking propensity. In contrast, out-of-school activities in similar domains often are often negatively associated with creative thinking, attributable to commercialization, credentialism, and performance-driven design. School and instructional support demonstrates complex effects: while indirect benefits emerge via individual traits, direct associations are often negative, reflecting tensions between creativity-oriented pedagogy and test-centric, hierarchical schooling cultures, as well as the superficial implementation of creative instruction. Peer and family support consistently promote creative thinking both directly and through individual traits. Extending Amabile’s intrinsic motivation hypothesis and Sternberg and Lubart’s investment theory, this study highlights the importance of autonomy-supportive environments that prioritize open-ended, non-instrumental learning over assessment-driven constraints in fostering creative thinking.