Is overparenting harmful to creativity?

Heavy parental involvement is widely believed to inhibit creativity. On the basis of this rationale and the self-creativity literature, this study collected paired data to examine the effects of overparenting (which includes the parental arrangement of daily life affairs and parental involvement in schooling), team learning, and coaching by immediate supervisors on employee creativity (i.e., the creativity of Chinese only-child millennial employees). The findings are described as follows. First, parental involvement in schooling had a significant and positive effect on employee creativity, and the parental arrangement of daily life affairs was inversely related to employee creativity, as in a U-shaped relationship. Second, supervisors' coaching behaviours improved employee creativity and partially moderated the relationship between overparenting and employee creativity. Third, team learning moderated the interrelationships between overparenting, coaching behaviours, and employee creativity. This paper discusses the complex factors that shape creativity and provides recommendations regarding the parenting and recruitment of Chinese millennials.