Too much praise and your kids grow up full of themselves

Telling your kids that they are special too often may cause them to grow up with an unrealistic self-image. Photo: Shutterstock

Children who are told they are special by their parents are more likely to become narcissists, according to a study that aimed to uncover the origins of extreme selfishness.

The research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal, is based on children in the Netherlands who were surveyed over the course of a year and a half, along with their parents.