Praise addiction in children

Although it is normative for children to desire praise, some might show addiction to praise. We define praise addiction as a strong reliance on praise: a constant seeking of praise, prioritization of praise-seeking, and distress when praise is not received. Some scholars argue that praise addiction is central to narcissism. Despite extensive theorizing, empirical research on praise addiction is lacking. With this multi-informant survey and experimental study, we investigated the phenotype, socialization, and manifestations of praise addiction in a nonclinical sample of children (N = 221, ages 7–13, 91% Dutch, and one of their parents, 89% Dutch). We developed a parent-report measure of praise addiction as a continuous trait, based on substance use disorder criteria. We measured children’s subjective praise cravings and adapted a classic drug self-administration paradigm to capture children’s efforts to obtain praise. While average praise addiction levels were low, there were meaningful individual differences. Children higher in praise addiction had lower self-esteem, were more sensitive to reward, and experienced higher parental overvaluation and lower parental warmth. Also, they exerted greater effort to obtain praise, even though the effort required to obtain it increased. By contrast, children higher in narcissism did not have lower self-esteem, were not more sensitive to reward, and experienced higher parental overvaluation without lower parental warmth. They did not exert greater effort to obtain praise but did experience elevated praise cravings. This study uncovers the nature of praise addiction, demonstrates its separateness from narcissism, and validates that children high in praise addiction may pursue praise vigorously.