New research offers some sobering "advice" for educators, parents, and coaches:
- Child-rearing experts have long believed that praise is an effective means to help children with low self-esteem feel better about themselves. But should one praise these children for who they are, or for how they behave?
- Study 1...showed that adults are inclined to give children with low self-esteem more person praise (i.e., praise for personal qualities) but less process praise (i.e., praise for behavior) than they give children with high self-esteem. This inclination may backfire, however.
- Study 2... showed that person praise, but not process praise, predisposes children, especially those with low self-esteem, to feel ashamed following failure.
- ...person praise seems to make children attribute failure to the self.
- Together, these findings suggest that adults, by giving person praise, may foster in children with low self-esteem the very emotional vulnerability they are trying to prevent.
(Brummelman, et al., 2013). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
