In Today's Economy New Graduates Redefine Success

As parents celebrate their children graduating from high school or college, many find themselves in the grip of achievement anxiety for their kids.

New York, New York (PRWEB) May 11, 2009 - Will today's graduates have the same opportunities for success that their parents did?
Will the recession derail new graduates' academic or professional plans?
What advice can parents give when they may feel unsure about their own future?

Parents need to sort out their own feelings about achievement and success, suggests Richard Weissbourd, a Harvard family and child psychologist. Do they equate achievement with money, intellectual accomplishments, and/or serving others? How wrapped up did they let themselves become with status concerns and competitive feelings with other parents? What unconscious script are they reacting to in their own heads--and possibly projecting onto their children--about how achievement is used to secure recognition, security or love?

Understand that "success" can be an elusive and short-lived concept. What is more enduring is helping our children discover work that is meaningful. Parents can help by sharing the achievements that have been most meaningful in their lives. Weissbourd notes, "Psychologist Charles Ducey observes that when college students who are wound up about achievement discover what's meaningful to them, the anguish around achievement often disappears, depression tends to go away when they find their passion, something that matters to them."

Weissbourd is the author of The Parents We Mean To Be, How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children's Moral and Emotional Development (Houghton Mifflin, March 2009). He is on the faculty of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and School of Education. To learn more, please visit www.richardweissbourd.com

Contact:
Christina Young, Publicity Director
New Mark Communications
914.736.1188
www.nmcommunications.com

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