The Relationship Between High School Students’ Perceptions of Comfort Zone and Creative Thinking Tendency: The Mediating Role of Risk-Taking
Öz
The aim of this study is to examine the effect of high school students’ comfort zone perception on their creative thinking tendency, as well as the mediating role of positive risk-taking tendency in this relationship. A total of 396 high school students participated in the study. Data were collected using the Comfort Zone Orientation Scale, the Creative Thinking Tendency Scale, and the Positive Risk-Taking Scale for Adolescents. The data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. Normality tests indicated that the data were normally distributed, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the scales were found to be above the acceptable reliability thresholds. The analyses included t-tests, one-way ANOVA, LSD post hoc tests, and mediation analysis. The findings revealed that comfort zone perception has a direct negative effect on creative thinking tendency, and that positive risk-taking tendency plays a mediating role in this relationship. It was concluded that while an increase in comfort zone perception decreases creative thinking tendency, positive risk-taking tendency positively influences creative thinking. Significant differences were observed based on demographic variables: male students exhibited higher levels of creative thinking, while female students showed higher levels of positive risk-taking and challenge-seeking tendencies. It was also found that as grade level increases, creative thinking and risk-taking tendencies increase, whereas the tendency to remain in the comfort zone decreases.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Comfort Zone, Creativity, Risk-Taking
Etik Beyan
The planning, implementation, data collection, and data analysis processes of this research were carried out in full compliance with all the rules specified in the “Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive.” None of the actions listed under the second section of the directive, titled “Violations of Scientific Research and Publication Ethics,” were committed. During the writing process of this study, scientific ethical principles and citation rules were strictly followed, no falsification was made on the collected data, and this study has not been submitted to any other academic publication venue for evaluation.
Teşekkür
This study was prepared within the scope of the 2025 TÜBİTAK 2204A High School Students Research Projects Competition in the field of Psychology and received an award at the Turkey Final. As the authors, we would like to thank TÜBİTAK for their support during this process and all the students who participated in the research.
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