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As with emotional development, both internal and external variables can affect young children's self-concept. For example, a child's temperament can affect how they view themselves and their ability to successfully complete tasks. Children with easy temperaments are typically willing to try things repeatedly and are better able to handle frustrations and challenges. In contrast, children with more difficult temperaments may become more easily frustrated and discouraged by challenges or changes in the situation. Children who can better cope with frustrations and challenges are more likely to think of themselves as successful, valuable, and good, which will lead to a higher self-esteem. In contrast, children who become easily frustrated and discouraged, often quit or need extra assistance to complete a task. These children may have lower self-esteem if they start to believe that they can't be successful and aren't valuable. External factors, such as messages from other people, also color how children view themselves. Young children with parents, caregivers, and teachers providing them with positive feedback about their abilities and attempts to succeed (even if they aren't successful the first time) usually have higher self-esteem. On the contrary, when parents, caregivers, or teachers are regularly negative or punitive toward children's attempts to succeed, or regularly ignore or downplay those achievements, young children will have a poor self-image and a lower selfesteem. Peers also have an impact on young children's self-concept. Young children who have playmates and classmates that are usually nice and apt to include the child in activities will develop a positive self-image. However, a young child who is regularly left out, teased, or bullied by same-age or older peers can develop low self-esteem. As mentioned repeatedly throughout this document, each child is unique, and he or she may respond to different environments in different ways. Some young children are naturally emotionally "resilient" in certain situations. Resilient children experience or witness something seemingly negative or harmful, without experiencing damage to their self-esteem or emotional development. Resilience not only enables such individuals to withstand life stress, but quite often these children became high achievers. This ability also helps resilient children to maintain good health and to resist mental and physical illnesses. For example, many young children who are severely physically and/or emotionally bullied perform poorly in school, become aggressive or withdrawn, or depressed or anxious. Resilient children experience that same bullying and show no signs or symptoms that the experience has negatively impacted them. For more on how to positively impact a young child's emotional and self-identity development, please see the article on Parenting Skills for the Preoperational Stage (this article is not yet compete.)
Another more complex but highly important part of a child's self-identity is formed by their cultural identity. While ideas about ancestry and how their family's culture fits into the larger society are too abstract for most young people to understand, it's never too early to teach children about cultural and religious traditions. Including young people in important meals, celebrations, religious services, etc, and explaining what's going on in simple terms is very important in passing on a sense of that child's cultural background. Ideas such as, "My family goes to the synagogue on Saturdays," or "Grandma's traditional soul food is yummy," become part of the child's self-concept. As time goes by and children's capacities to understand what it means when someone says "I am Jewish", or "I am an African American," these experiences will continue to add to and to enrich their self-concept.