“Wow, you’re really smart!” – How children’s self-esteem affects teachers’ praise

Person praise, as compared to process praise, can have detrimental consequences on performance and motivation. Children with low self-esteem are most vulnerable for these effects. However, parents administer more person praise and less process praise to these children than to children with high self-esteem. In this study, we examined whether teachers (N = 262) underlay the same fallacy. Pre-service and in-service teachers were asked to write down praise for three fictional children aged 10 to 14 years. Children's self-esteem (low vs. high) was varied between participants. The answers were coded as person, process, or other praise. Person praise was given more often to children with low self-esteem than to children with high self-esteem. A reverse pattern was found for process and other praise. Thus, the paradoxical use of person praise for children with low self-esteem is not limited to laypersons and needs to be addressed in teacher education.