The Influence of Regulatory Focus on Creative Thinking in Chinese Higher Education: A Learning Engagement Mediation Analysis

Abstract

This study, based on the context of China's higher education, explores how regulatory focus influences the promotion of creative thinking by affecting the learning engagement of undergraduate students, and analyzes the roles of gender and disciplinary differences in this process. Based on this, the study surveyed 768 undergraduate students majoring in computer science and art design. The results showed that promoting regulatory focus has a significant positive predictive effect on creative thinking, while inhibiting regulatory focus has a significant negative predictive effect. Learning engagement plays a crucial mediating role between regulatory focus and creative thinking, with the cognitive and emotional dimensions being particularly important. Although there are significant differences in regulatory focus tendencies among students from different majors (students in the art design major showed higher inhibitory focus), these differences did not directly lead to significant differences in learning engagement or creative thinking performance. Moreover, no significant gender differences were found in regulatory focus, learning engagement, and creative thinking. These research results provide empirical evidence and practical insights for cultivating the creative thinking of Chinese undergraduate students, namely, by optimizing the learning environment and designing targeted intervention strategies.