Parental praise improves a child’s behavior, wellbeing
Parental praise does work, psychologists say, after looking at how regular praise coming from parents has impacted children’s behaviour and well-being. And scientists say that parents should compliment their offspring at least five times a day.
Speaking at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference in Brighton, professor Sue Westwood from De Montfort University, offered some key insights into how parents could improve a child’s behaviour and well-being.
The scientists presented the results of the study conducted on 38 parents with children, aged between two and four years, that have been given information about how to effectively praise their offspring. The parents also had to fill out a questionnaire to monitor behavior and well-being over a four-week period.
loading...
While some parents were part of a control group, others have had to offer five pieces of praise each day and to catch their child’s good behaviour. Those that stuck to the guidelines provided by the psychologists, have observed an improvement of the child’s well-being, compared with parents that were part of the control group.
Children that were praised by their parents also had reduced levels of hyperactivity and inattention, according to the findings of the study.
“Following the five praises initiative led to improved behaviour as well as reduced levels of hyperactivity across just a four week period, said Sue Westwood. “This simple, cost effective intervention shows the importance of effective parental praise and, when used on a regular basis, it has been shown to have a significant impact.”
But another study, coming from the University of Minnesota, warns that not all praise is created equal. Scientists from there argue that while descriptive praise could build up self-esteem and lead to a better child-parent relationship, evaluative praise could actually make things worse.
In order to be effective, praises should be descriptive, Minnesota scientists say. Parents are told to describe what the child did right or how that made the parent feel, and let the it draw its own conclusions.
Children should not be complimented with evaluative praise like “You are a very generous person,” because these can make the child dependent on the judgment of the praiser. Instead of calling the child generous, psychologist recommend that parents simply describe the action that was commendable like “When you saw that your colleague forgot his sandwich, you gave him part of yours.”
Loading...