["International Journal of Art &Design Education, EarlyView. ", "\nAbstract\nThis study constructed a theoretical framework to analyse the relationship between artistic activities and creative thinking, examining both their external manifestations and underlying mechanisms. Utilising data from 9074 middle school students in Hong Kong and Macao, sourced from the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2022), the study employed structural equation modelling (SEM) to empirically investigate these relationships. Results indicate that artistic activities enhance adolescents' creative thinking through the mediating role of creative engagement, which involves active participation in knowledge creation, creative expression and creative problem‐solving. The study confirms that knowledge creation, creative expression and creative problem‐solving serve as core pathways through which creative engagement fosters creative thinking. Collective artistic activities, in particular, exhibit a pronounced effect on promoting creative thinking. Furthermore, gender differences observed from these pathways suggest potential biases embedded in socio‐cultural and educational environments. These findings underscore the need to improve more diverse, inclusive and equitable opportunities for gender equity in arts education. Theoretically, the study extends existing theories of creativity development. Practically, it explores new directions for aligning art education goals with societal needs, emphasising: (1) pedagogical design centred on deep creative engagement, (2) the integration of comprehensive artistic literacy and (3) cross‐disciplinary resource optimisation to foster an innovative and inclusive art education environment.\n"]