BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.20, No.2, 2025, BECE 1991 

 

 

 

 

Homework Loads and Creativity Development in 

Chinese Primary and Secondary School Students: An 

Empirical Analysis Based on the SSES Data 

By Qian, J, Li, Q., & Shi, Y. 
Correspondence to: Jia Qian, Central China Normal University, China. E-mail: 

qianjia@ccnu.edu.cn 

RAWING on data from the OECD’s Survey of Social and Emotional 

Skills (SSES), the study seeks to investigate the relationship between 

homework loads and creativity development in Chinese primary and second-

ary school students, with the purpose of providing evidence for scientific im-

plementation of the Double Reduction policy. 

Research Findings: 

• There was an inverted U-shape relationship between student 

homework loads and creativity. As their weekly homework time 

increases, the students’ creativity initially strengthened, followed 

by degrading with the inflection point at 8.377 hours. Moderate 

amounts of homework can foster creativity, whereas excessive 

workload, which may lead to sleep deprivation, emotional stress, 

etc., can stifle it. 

• There were significant group differences in the relationship in 

question. The negative consequences of homework burden were 

more pronounced among junior secondary students and second-

ary girl students; the students with higher family socioeconomic 

status (SES) and experiencing higher teacher expectations were 

more creative. 

• The mediating and moderating mechanisms: Inordinate home-

work loads indirectly eroded creativity by lowering sleep quality 

and increasing negative emotions; academic anxiety weakened 

the positive effect of homework on creativity. 

The study suggests: 

• Scientifically stratifying assignments. The principle of “less is 

more” does not apply to homework assignment. To optimize the 

effects of homework, the teacher needs to reduce the workloads 

for students feeling overburdened while assigning legitimate ex-

tra tasks to high potential ones. 

• Considering non-cognitive factors. Improving homework design 

(e.g., adding open-ended tasks) and offering emotional support 

D 



 

Vol.20, No.2, 2025, BECE 1992 

(e.g., alleviating academic anxiety) are among effective ap-

proaches to releasing students’ creativity. 

 

Source: Education Research and Experiment, 2025; 2025(01):103-113.