The State of the Kid: 2015 Survey Results
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And when it comes to getting mom and dad to buy them what they want, kids ain’t too proud to beg, with 32 percent reporting that they will plead to try to convince their parents to let them buy or do something they want. “I tell them I would listen to them every second after that,” as one girl respondent put it. Alas, 44 percent of kids report that even after all of that begging, parents still say they have to earn it.
Competition
The debate over whether or not all kids should get a trophy for participating in an activity or sport is a hot button issue. Three-in-five kids think everyone deserves a trophy, but the older the kids get, the more they believe that only winners should get recognition. And while girls tend to favor recognizing everyone (66 percent), boys are more evenly split (53 percent everyone and 47 percent just the winners). “Kids have to learn that they can’t always win and they have to learn how to be polite when they lose,” said an 11 year-old boy.
He has a point: According to a study by The Ohio State University (February 2015), “parental overvaluation was the largest predictor of a child’s narcissism over time, but interestingly, it did not predict self-esteem. In other words, telling kids how exceptional they are doesn’t produce kids with healthy self-esteem—it just makes them more narcissistic,” according to a Forbes.com article.
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