Introducing the inventory of creative activities for young adolescents: An adaption and validation study

• We present an inventory for the measurement of creative activities in adolescents. • Creative activities are correlated with creative potential (fluency). • Creative activities are predictive of creative achievements cross-sectionally. The measurement of everyday creative activities has been a widely applied measure of creativity in adult samples in order to investigate the relationship with creative potential and creative achievements. Despite the importance of creative activities for the development of achievements the assessment mostly focuses on adults. In the study at hand, we develop a questionnaire for adolescents and provide results regarding its structural, convergent, and predictive validity in a sample of n = 423 talented students from sixth and seventh grade. We show structural validity of the theoretically derived factor structure including six content domains (literature, handicrafts, fine arts, performing arts, music, and technology). Furthermore, we provide proof of convergent validity given the correlation of creative activities with divergent thinking as well as predictive validity regarding creative achievements. We discuss the findings in the light of previous studies including adult samples and summarize recommendations for the application of the measurement of creative activities in gifted students as well as in more general student populations.