Children with no hope of winning a spelling bee or landing a role in the school play or hitting a home run in a softball game lose confidence in themselves and give up trying. Loss of self-esteem leads to an unwillingness to take chances and risk further failure. These are the kids who disappear onto the sidelines or into television addiction. They are also the ones who eat too much or eat too little to sustain life. There is a big difference between trying to do well and trying to do better than someone else.
Competition can produce inhibiting levels of anxiety.
Children who excel at debate or win prizes at a music competition, for example, often do so because they have the temperament to withstand the pressure of the event, rather than the talent to win. The artistic, sensitive child may be undone by the stress of competition. Kohn sites research which shows that children taking art classes who compete for prizes display less creativity than those who do not compete. No doubt it's because these children take fewer risks, as they go about producing art work that they hope will please the judges rather than please themselves. We cling to the belief that it builds character when, in fact, there is evidence that what it builds is resentments.