Poor Self-Esteem Runs in the Family. Here’s How to Break the Cycle.

Self-esteem is a lot like Ikea furniture — few parents know how to build it correctly and a lot of kids risk getting hurt because of it. Scientists suspect that the key to developing self-esteem is starting early when children are young and their brains are still developing. This is part of the reason that low self-esteem seems to run in the family. An adult with poor self-esteem is likely to focus on themselves rather than their kids. The problem with this is that it’s much easier to build self-esteem in kids, so it makes logical sense for the focus to start with them, to break the cycle, and then get on the more difficult task of following suit as an adult.