Most parents want their young children to have a healthy sense of self-esteem.
Many observers believe that low self-esteem lies at the bottom of many of society's problems.
Even though self-esteem has been studied for more than 100 years, specialists and educators continue to debate its precise nature and development. Nevertheless, they generally agree that parents and other adults who are important to children play a major role in laying a solid foundation for a child's development. With young children, self-esteem refers to the extent to which they expect to be accepted and valued by the adults and peers who are important to them. Children with a healthy sense of self-esteem feel that the important adults in their lives accept them, care about them, and would go out of their way to ensure that they are safe and well. They feel that those adults would be upset if anything happened to them and would miss them if they were separated.