London - Parents with an inflated view of their children’s importance are more likely to give them unusual names and lie about their achievements, a study has found.
Researchers found that many “overvalue” their offspring, believing them to be more special and entitled than others.
These parents are more likely to be conceited and self-important themselves, according to Dutch academics.
One of the main ways to make their children stand out is with unique or uncommon names, they added.
This could be reflected in celebrity culture, with examples such as Kim Kardashian’s daughter North West and Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter Apple.
Over-proud parents were also more likely to boast that their children knew about topics which had been made up by the study team to impress others.
Meanwhile, they tended to heap lavish praise on their offspring, even though this could step up pressure on them to succeed.
In the study of 1 700 Dutch and American parents, they were asked about statements such as “my child deserves special treatment”.
They also rated their child’s intelligence, which was compared to their actual IQ.
The answers were used to create a scale going from “not at all overvaluing” to “extremely overvaluing”, said the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. - Daily Mail