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Thursday, March 12, 2015

Parents who over-praise their kids are breeding trouble, study says

Kids who think too highly of themselves likely developed their narcissism because their parents put them on a pedestal and doled out unearned praise, a new study claims.

Parents who "overvalue" their children -- believing they are "God's gift to man" -- tend to raise youngsters with an overblown sense of their own superiority, researchers report in the March 9 online edition of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It comes pretty naturally," said senior study author Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University. "Most parents think their children are special, and deserve better treatment. But when our children receive special treatment, they become narcissistic and come to believe they deserve more and are superior to others."

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, unless dad is rich and mom is good looking, the kids at school will set little junior straight. Privileged brats join SAE.

Anonymous said...

awww, lil pumpkin, don't cry. here's your participatory trophy. you're all winners...

Anonymous said...

Narcissist,that word describes most politicans but it describes the Clintons and Obamas perfectly.

Anonymous said...

Maybe schools shouldn't give stickers, pizza and gym shoes to kids for just following the rules.

Anonymous said...

I think this is very true. The parent(s) probably mean well and think they're doing the right thing to make the kid feel good about him/herself and feel like they can achieve anything they set their minds to (like the schools tell them every day), but as we've seen every day in real life, that just doesn't always happen.
I love my son and he knows it. I love him enough to tell him the truth about what he does and how he acts, the things he might desire to do, etc, to let him know what he will encounter in REAL life
No 'Participant' prizes.

Anonymous said...

This is without a doubt the most truthful article I have read in a long time. Guilty as charged.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the utter arrogance and self-entitlement attitude some kids are soaking up from their parents is appalling. "Nurturing their self-esteem" is turning them into arrogant, thoughtless, self-aggrandizing, demanding, self-entitled ingrates without a scrap of humilty or modesty.

Anonymous said...

12:18-- These kids are probably getting it more from the liberal educators than their parents.
The parents got the 'self-esteem' ideas from the schools.

Anonymous said...

Then there's the child who received a gift from the gift box when he didn't poop his pants and wiped his butt prior to graduating from kindergarten.