Since the 1960s, self-esteem has become a cornerstone of Western child-rearing. After reviewing a large body of rigorous longitudinal research, Orth and Robins (2022) conclude that self-esteem brings modest but significant benefits across all ages. However, the authors did not intend to suggest strategies for raising children’s self-esteem. The aim of my commentary is to identify such strategies. Without guidance on how to raise children’s self-esteem safely and sustainably, well-intentioned strategies, such as inflated praise, may inadvertently undermine self-esteem or even breed narcissism. Instead, interventions should be based on a theoretically informed and empirically supported understanding of the determinants of self-esteem. By targeting these determinants, interventions may be able to raise children’s self-esteem safely (i.e., without breeding narcissism) and sustainably (i.e., leading to lasting improvements in self-esteem and its presumed outcomes). Evaluating these interventions through randomized controlled trials will help build a theory of when and why self-esteem interventions work. Ultimately, this work will provide nuanced and dependable guidance to parents, teachers, and professionals on how to raise children’s self-esteem.

中文翻译：

---

如何培养孩子的自尊心？评论 Orth 和 Robins (2022)。

自 1960 年代以来，自尊已成为西方育儿的基石。在回顾了大量严格的纵向研究后，Orth 和 Robins（2022 年）得出结论，自尊为所有年龄段的人带来适度但显着的好处。然而，作者并不打算提出提高儿童自尊的策略。我的评论的目的是确定这些策略。如果没有关于如何安全和可持续地提高儿童自尊的指导，善意的策略，如夸大其词，可能会无意中破坏自尊，甚至滋生自恋。相反，干预应该基于对自尊的决定因素的理论支持和经验支持的理解。通过针对这些决定因素，干预措施可能能够安全地提高儿童的自尊心（即，没有滋生自恋）和可持续的（即，导致自尊的持久改善及其假定的结果）。通过随机对照试验评估这些干预措施将有助于建立一个关于自尊干预何时以及为何起作用的理论。最终，这项工作将为家长、教师和专业人士提供关于如何提高儿童自尊的细致而可靠的指导。