MIAMI (The Independent) - Parents who spend a lot of encouraging their children while they are playing are unwittingly damaging their creativity, researchers say.

A study presented at the American Psychological Society's conference shows that children are more creative when parents are not constantly encouraging them. The researchers said that a lot of parental involvement, previously seen as beneficial, suppressed creativity, because it turned play into a structured activity, leaving the child feeling anxious to perform well.

Dr. Dale Grubb, from Baldwin-Wallace College, near Cleveland, Ohio, a co-author of the study, said: "The adage that parents want to encourage kids to color between the lines appears to be true. Parents need to allow their kids to feel free to experiment if they want their children to grow up into creative and original adults. If parents get involved too much the child feels they are being evaluated and judged.

"While the demand on creative individuals continues to increase, teachers and parents are looking at ways to foster creativity and originality in the next generation. This research shows that although parents need to encourage and support their children, there are times they should just allow them to get on with it."

Researchers videoed parents and their children aged three or four as they played with foam shapes. The creativity of parent and child was tested. The children made shapes such as swords, crowns and dinosaurs but some showed more originality. One boy made a swimming pool using all the shapes and furniture, while others made imaginary creatures.

Parent-child interaction was coded by researchers assessing how much they spoke to each other, voice tone, whether comments were negative or positive, and how much the parent tried to control what the child did. The researchers expected parents who talked and interacted with their children would have more creative offspring but the findings show the opposite.

Alicia Snyder, a co-author of the study, said: "Parents with parenting skills that are thought to encourage creativity actually decreased the level of fluency and originality in children." The findings also showed men and women who felt frustrated in their role as parents also tended to inhibit their children.

Grubb said: "All parents who took part in the study tried hard to be supportive to their children. But those who talked too much ended up stifling their children's creativity."

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