But the accretion of evidence has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of therapists, child-rearing experts and school administrators.
Some child-rearing experts say a steady stream of praise can turn children into praise addicts who lack confidence because they dismiss the value of the compliments.
That's just as well, say some child-rearing experts, like Dr. Dorothy G. Singer of the Yale University Family Television Research Center.
Doctors, child-rearing experts and others -- including New York magazine and Psychology Today -- chimed in to lament the regrettable message sent to young fans of "Glee," a show with a theme of self-acceptance.
Early 20th century child-rearing experts were a grim lot, cautioning mothers against touching their young.
Nancy Samalin, a child-rearing expert and author of the forthcoming book "Loving Without Spoiling," said not to worry so much.
One of those experts, Rear Adm. Georgi G. Kostov, an instructor at Russia's naval academy, said yesterday that it was possible that some crewmen could still be huddled at the rear of the vessel.
This 33-year-old elephant expert, reared in Connecticut and educated at Cambridge, began seeking a solution after he found himself occasionally helping to shoot "particularly cheeky" young bulls that were repeat offenders, sometimes despoiling fields in an almost playful cat-and-mouse game with outraged, fearful farmers.
Most experts in child-rearing would encourage parents first to talk to their children about these kinds of concerns.
This is how she went from being the daughter of well-meaning but self-absorbed upper-middle-class liberals (her father was a sort of Dr. Spock, an expert in child rearing; her mother, a very proper suburban housewife) to being a bomb-making member of the Weather Underground.
Coercive child-rearing produced frustrated, aggressive children, some experts argued.
