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Scaredy Cats
School of hard knocks
Kids who are prevented from taking
risks are more likely to be anxious and fearful later in life,
posits a paper in a 2011 issue of the journal Evolutionary
Psychology. Authors Ellen Sandseter, a psychologist at Queen
Maud University in Norway, and Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, a
psychologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
used observations of small groups of kids in Norway, England, and
Australia. They found that when kids are insulated from
opportunities to take risks—such as climbing, roughhousing, playing
near fire and water, and exploring alone—they fail to learn the
limits of their own abilities and consequently become less
confident and more fearful.
“Children need to encounter risks and overcome fears on the playground,” Sandseter told The New York Times. “I think monkey bars and tall slides are great. As playgrounds become more and more boring, these are some of the few features that still can give children thrilling experiences with heights and high speed.”
Sometimes lessons must be learned the hard way, Sandseter and Kennair argue: A child injured in a fall before the age of 9 is unlikely to suffer long-term harm from the injury but is less likely to have a fear of heights as a teenager. Institutional elements matter too. “Overprotection through governmental control of playgrounds and exaggerated fear of playground accidents,” the authors conclude, may “result in an increase of anxiety in society.”
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wulfy|11.4.11 @ 7:37PM|#
Kids learn good risk management when parents show them how to take small risks, give small praise for success, and realistic feedback for failure, but encouragement to try again. Then when the kids are consistenlty successful, they encourage gradually larger risks. Obvious? Not to most parents I think.
Many parents give too much praise AND too much negative feedback, like a bicycle with no brakes...too much positive feedback makes them overconfident of some abilities, and too much negative feedback makes them overly fearful of other challenges.
In other words, parents AND government are attempting and failing to exert too much control. This failed leadership will eventually lead to revolution, in both kids and citizens.