Effectiveness of a blended learning program for enhancing mental health literacy among university students: a randomized educational study.

Creativity in everyday life has been shown to be instrumental to academic achievement [], fostering a sense of purpose [], and enhancing the overall quality of life []. Scholarly work on creativity consistently identifies flexibility as a core cognitive component of creative thought [–]. Theoretical accounts such as the Dual Pathway to Creativity Model explicitly position cognitive flexibility (hereafter known as CF) as a central mechanism supporting creative thinking [], as creative cognition requires the ability to move beyond habitual responses to make novel connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, which are processes that depend on flexible shifts in attention and perspective [, ]. In addition, both CF and creativity involve generating, manipulating, and switching between multiple ideas or techniques in response to changing task requirements [, ]. Further, empirical studies in adults [] consistently show that higher CF is associated with more creative thinking and the use of creative problem-solving strategies. In sum, both theoretical and empirical work suggest that CF and creativity are closely related. Despite scholarly evidence suggesting the close association between CF and creativity, the developmental trajectory of the CF-creativity relationship remains poorly understood. Although lifespan frameworks for CF [] and creativity [] have gained traction, they have largely evolved independently with limited integration. As a result, research on the CF-creativity link remains disproportionately adult-focused [–], while studies in children and adolescents are relatively scarce and methodologically inconsistent. This is particularly concerning given that childhood and adolescence are marked by dynamic neural and cognitive development [, ], offering potentially critical windows to understand how CF supports emerging creativity. To move the field forward, there is a pressing need to consolidate what is currently known about CF and creativity across development. A comprehensive review of the literature can clarify how these constructs have been conceptualized and measured in younger populations, reveal patterns or inconsistencies in their association, and identify critical gaps in knowledge. Understanding where the field currently stands is a necessary step towards building an integrated developmental framework of CF and creativity.