Parents Who Overvalue Their Kids May Be Creating Narcissists

A new study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is showing that parents who over value their kids may be creating narcissists.

Especially from ages 7-11, parents who instill the beliefs that they are better than other kids and that they deserve special treatment might be doing more harm than good.

Yes, your kids are special. But hammering that belief into them to the point of overvaluation could be creating a class of kids that doesn't feel empathy toward others. They live with a sense of being better than others, and it can become anti-social, even problematic behavior.

In a hilarious part of the study, parents even over-estimated their kids' knowledge base to a ridiculous degree. They assumed their kids were so smart that they knew things that they simply couldn't know. According to this NPR report, parents in the study were asked many questions about their kids.

They were queried on whether or not their kids knew of certain historic occurrences or people—but not all the examples were real.

For example, some parents were asked if they knew if their kids knew who Winston Churchill was. Many said yes. Then there were asked if they knew who a fictional person was. Example, Queen Alberta, who never really existed. Many still said yes.

That exercise was repeated with historical events.

'Do your kids know of the French Revolution?'

‘Of course. My kids are genius.’ replied the overvaluing parent.

'Well, if they are so genius, do they know of the Bejing Revolution?'

‘Hello. I have the smartest kids ever. Of course they know of the Bejing Revolution!’

There was no Bejing Revolution.

This kind of parent that thinks their kids are a little too smart, a little too talented, a little too well read could be feeding into building the narcissism that, according to this study, is on the increase.

At worst, Brad Bushman of Ohio State University, an author of the study, says that this is worrisome because it can lead to aggressive or violent behavior.

Or, it just may be annoying to hang out with people who think they are just so damn special.