ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Psychology in Education
Proactive and Creative Personality as Predictors of Student Engagement and Innovative Behavior among Chinese University Students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jiangsu Vocational College of Finance and Economics, Huai'an, China
- 2Daejin University, Pocheon, Republic of Korea
- 3Jungwon University, Goesan-gun, Republic of Korea
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This study examined the structural relationships among proactive personality, creative personality, student engagement, and innovative behavior among Chinese university students. Specifically, it investigated how proactive and creative personality traits independently and jointly influence student engagement and innovative behavior, while controlling for their mutual effects. Data were collected from multiple universities in China and analyzed using structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation. Results revealed that proactive personality had a significant positive effect on student engagement, whereas creative personality did not. Both proactive and creative personalities significantly influenced innovative behavior, with creative personality showing a stronger effect. Together, proactive and creative personality traits explained the majority of the variability in student engagement and innovative behavior. These findings suggest that proactive personality serves as a strong antecedent of student engagement, while both proactive and creative personalities are key drivers of innovative behavior. Theoretically, the findings reinforce that creativity may not directly enhance engagement but plays a crucial role in fostering innovation. Practically, strengthening proactive personality may enhance students' academic engagement, whereas developing both proactive and creative personalities may concurrently promote creativity and innovation. In light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, universities should implement strategies that nurture proactive and creativity-oriented traits among students.
Keywords: Chinese student, Creative personality, Innovative behavior, proactive personality, student engagement
Received: 22 Nov 2025; Accepted: 09 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Meng, Kang and Quan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kab Won Kang
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