Encourage the effort and the process, not the outcome

Encouragement builds inner confidence; outcome-praise creates dependency on adult evaluation.

Why it works

Dreikurs distinguished encouragement — which focuses on effort, progress, and contribution — from praise, which evaluates the outcome and makes the child dependent on adult approval for self-worth. Encouragement activates intrinsic motivation by tying the good feeling to the child’s own action; praise ties it to the parent’s judgment, making the child anxious for approval and avoidant of failure. This is consistent with Carol Dweck’s growth mindset research, which shows process praise predicts resilience and effort.

How to do it

1. Replace evaluative praise ("That’s amazing!") with specific encouragement ("You kept working on that even when it was hard — that took persistence.").
2. Notice improvement, not just success: "You made fewer errors than last time" is encouraging; "You got an A!" is praising the grade.
3. Focus on contribution: "The team really benefited from what you did" — connecting their action to a larger purpose.

Evidence

Growth mindset research (Dweck) provides robust support for process praise over outcome praise: children praised for effort chose harder challenges, recovered better from failure, and outperformed children praised for ability in multiple studies. A longitudinal study (Gunderson et al., 2013) found that the proportion of process praise parents gave 1- to 3-year-olds predicted those children’s motivational frameworks five years later, extending the finding beyond the lab into everyday parent language. (rct)

Growth mindset research has faced some replication challenges in larger samples; the process-praise vs. ability-praise distinction remains one of the more robust findings, but effect sizes vary across contexts.

Sources

• Mueller, C. M. & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33–52.
• Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33–52.
• Gunderson, E. A., Gripshover, S. J., Romero, C., Dweck, C. S., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Levine, S. C. (2013). Parent praise to 1- to 3-year-olds predicts children’s motivational frameworks 5 years later. Child Development, 84(5), 1526–1541.

Common mistake

Adding a process component to outcome praise rather than leading with it: "Great A — and you worked hard on it!" still anchors the value on the grade.