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   From: bulldoze-that-village@hillaryclinton.com   
      
   Make your kid believe he’s a “special snowflake” and you risk   
   turning him into a narcissistic jerk, according to a new Dutch   
   study.   
      
   Narcissistic individuals think they’re better than everyone   
   else, live for personal success and expect exceptional   
   treatment, explained the authors of the study that appeared in   
   the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National   
   Academy of Sciences. When narcissists experience failure,   
   they’re not pleasant to be around, sometimes even lashing out   
   violently, the study notes.   
      
   The study evaluated 565 Dutch children ages 7 through 12 for   
   narcissist tendencies such as feelings of superiority and self-   
   satisfaction. The investigators also questioned the children’s   
   parents about how, when and how often they offered praise and   
   other feedback.   
      
   The kids whose parents consistently told them they were superior   
   to other children, no matter what, scored higher on measurements   
   for narcissism compared to kids who were given a more realistic   
   view of themselves, the investigators found. That’s because over-   
   praising children can lead them to believe they are special   
   people who deserve special treatment all the time, explained   
   Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at   
   Ohio State University and one of the study’s authors.   
      
   “Parents should be warm and loving, but not give their child   
   blanket praise,” Bushman said. “We should not boost self-esteem   
   and hope our children will behave well. Instead, we should   
   praise our children after they do well.”   
      
   Dr. Gene Beresin, the executive director of Massachusetts   
   General Hospital’s Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, said he   
   was skeptical about some of the study’s conclusions.   
      
   “In the first place, parents are just one influence on a child,”   
   he said. “Teachers, peers, siblings and many others influence   
   how a child feels about themselves and how they behave towards   
   others.”   
      
   Beresin said American children are not necessarily the same as   
   Dutch children. But what concerned him most is the age of the   
   children in the study.   
      
   “I don’t see how you can label kids this young as narcissistic   
   when it’s generally recognized that such personality traits   
   aren’t fully formed until late adolescence, like around age 18,”   
   he said.   
      
   Beresin said parents who build a bond of trust with their   
   children by giving them honest feedback mixed with encouragement   
   and support help build a child’s self-esteem and security.   
   Positive feedback, as long as it’s accurate and appropriate, can   
   only help boost a child’s self-worth, he said.   
      
   But the investigators said their work builds on a body of   
   research that shows parental “overvaluation” leads to narcissism   
   later in life because children tend to see themselves as the   
   important people in their lives see them. The researchers didn’t   
   rule out the effects of other influences like genetics but said   
   previous work shows that cultivating an unreasonably confident   
   view of self is at the core of narcissism.   
      
   http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=29506856   
      
           
      
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