Optimism. Seeing the glass half full. How important is it? Research has found that optimists are happier, experience less stress, are more successful, and are healthier than pessimists. Optimists also outlive pessimists. We teach our children manners; we educate them and discipline them, all in the hope that one day they will fit into the wider world with success and happiness. What if we were to put similar effort into helping our children adapt and think optimistically? While optimism or pessimism has a genetic component, research has identified a number of other factors that can influence an optimistic mindset.
1. Help your Child to Develop a Positive Explanatory Style
One factor highly correlated with optimism is an optimistic explanatory style. Explanatory style is a concept developed by Martin Seligman of The University of Pennsylvania. Simply put, it is the way we explain what is going on around us. Optimists tend attribute their successes to something about themselves, and failures to situational factors, while pessimists do the reverse: they attribute successes to situational factors, and failures to inherent qualities about themselves. One way to help pessimistic children develop a more optimistic explanatory style is to challenge their contentions that failure is due to a flaw from within. Work with them to see a given incident as situational, and not a reflection of their internal worth. Alternatively, when your child enjoys a success, focus on what about the child helped to bring about the success. Children with pessimistic explanatory styles will often attribute any success to a spate of good luck.
2. Challenge Catastrophic Thinking
This goes hand in hand with developing a positive explanatory style. Catastrophic thinking is just what it sounds like: imagining a catastrophic outcome, a doomsday scenario. When you listen to the complaints of an anxious child , be on the lookout for words like