The Negative Effects Of Raising Children In The United States

Abstract

In other countries praise is something that barely happens. In the United States praise seems to be something like a necessity. Unlike the American culture, other cultures worry about the effects of praise on children. Some might believe that the idea of praising children is that of western cultures. In countries like America, praising children is used to motivate children, making them more confident and able to succeed more in life. If praised is used too much or too often it could also weaken the child’s self-esteem and greatly damage the child. There could be a right way and a wrong way to praise children, it seems like society believes that praise has more effects than negative effects on children.

Keywords: praise, motivation,

Self-esteem isn’t about telling your kids that everything they do is amazing or prefect. A real sense of pride in the child is based on the skills they build for themselves and the accomplishments they are able to achieve on their own. Sometimes a child must fail in order to know how to succeed. Children may feel that they can receive praise without any real effort or they even can feel self-conscious or afraid to fail. When children are praised for their ability rather than their effort, they become more cautious and less willing to try new things. The child will then avoid challenges, and cling onto their parents for acceptance. It’s as if they are afraid to do anything that might make them fail and lose their parents’ high appraisal (Mueller 1998). This may have a lot to do with the parent not practicing healthy praising. The praise the parent might give may not come off as genuine, or the scolding of the parent may be just as powerful as the praise of the child, therefore; the child is afraid to fail. This is often the issue because parents often times have issues finding the ‘happy medium’. Praising children can backfire. Most studies support the claim that praising has positive effects self-esteem, but there are some studies that show overpraising might cause more harm than good. Although there are some studies, there is not enough sufficient evidence that suggests that parents praising their children may backfire or have negative effects on the