ERIC Number: EJ976812
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0164-775X
EISSN: N/A
An Alternative to Self-Esteem: Fostering Self-Compassion in Youth
Persinger, James
Communique, v40 n5 p20, 22-23 Jan-Feb 2012
For more than a generation, the idea that children need nurturance of a high self-esteem in order to be developmentally healthy has had wide acceptance in Western psychology. A generation of parents has been told that one of their key tasks is to increase their children's self-esteem, and teachers have been trained to give accolades, gold stars, and the occasional trophy to foster self-esteem in their students. The emphasis on self-esteem is an outgrowth of the perception that global self-esteem is almost synonymous with mental health. Though numerous scholarly articles have been written about self-esteem arguing that it relates to adaptive outcomes, the idea that self-esteem brings well-being alone has been increasingly questioned, in part because in some cases, people engage in counterproductive or dysfunctional behaviors to nurture high self-esteem in others and to produce it in themselves. High and inflated self-esteem may have its perils, and to avoid them, self-compassion is proposed as an alternate construct. In this article, the author discusses how to foster self-compassion in youth. This article begins with a comparison between self-esteem and self-compassion. Then, it describes key characteristics and corollaries of self-compassion and the strategies that are designed to increase self-compassion.
Descriptors: Altruism, Self Esteem, Parent Child Relationship, Mental Health, Adjustment (to Environment), Well Being, Daily Living Skills, Self Management
National Association of School Psychologists. 4340 East West Highway Suite 402, Bethesda, MD 20814. Tel: 301-657-0270; Fax: 301-657-0275; e-mail: publications@naspweb.org; Web site: http://www.nasponline.org/publications/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A