4 Troubled Teens Blog

High self-esteem in children may increase their aggression toward others when they feel ashamed, according to a new study from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and the University of Michigan.

Researchers tested 163 children 10 to 13 years old for self-esteem, and then had them play in a fake video game tournament. Some were randomly selected to be "shamed." The team told that group that they were playing against poor players and that their scores would appear on a website that everyone could see. The narcissistic children in the study who felt ashamed became aggressive.

"Narcissists seem highly motivated to create and maintain a grandiose sense of self," said co-author Brad Bushman, a psychologist at the University of Michigan. This finding opposes conventional wisdom that children with high self-esteem are better at handling criticism and insults.

This study appears in the journal Child Development.

Labels: violence, self-esteem, agression

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Stephen Gavazzi, professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University, has co-authored a study that argues in favor of re-evaluating common wisdom about troubled teens. The study, which looked at how boys and girls handle their problems, tested the common belief that boys act out, while girls internalize.

"In his study, the results showed that Black girls and boys showed similar levels of externalizing and internalizing behavior, once family dysfunction was taken into account. In these families, boys and girls were more likely to show outward aggression if they lived in families with higher levels of dysfunction. Such a relationship was not found in white families."

Gavazzi says the findings shouldn't be surprising. People who study ethnicity and culture have long stated that the importance of family is different for African-American youths than it is for white youths. Gavazzi also believes his results are vital for organizations that help troubled teenagers, though he noted that more research needs to be done to determine how best to use the information. Source: MediLexicon.com

Labels: relationships, emotional_issues, agression

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