For any parent frustrated trying to control small children zooming around in superhero capes, researchers have a novel strategy: Get Superman on your side.
Children encouraged to don a cape or backpack and pretend to be a patient, strong-willed superhero such as Superman or Batman are able to persevere at boring tasks and wait longer for rewards. These pivotal skills are linked in research to better SAT scores, grades and social skills in adolescence. Parents can use similar strategies to channel children’s superhero play toward imitating their idols’ best traits.
Many adults would prefer to sit out the superhero phenom. “Children can get kind of wild,” and superhero movies, videos and games are often violent and heavy-handed in promoting spinoff products, says Susan Friedman, senior director for content strategy for the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a Washington, D.C., professional group. The challenge is to go beyond the action imagery children see in videos and films and help them focus on superheroes’ motivations and character.
In a recent study, 180 4- and 6-year-olds were asked to “work hard and be a good helper” by performing a boring computer task for as long as they could, to a maximum of 10 minutes. They were free to take breaks to play a video game on an iPad nearby.
Researchers invited children in one group to impersonate a cartoon hero and ask themselves whether their character was working hard. Most either donned a cape and pretended to be Batman, or chose a crown and impersonated the adventurous Rapunzel from the film “Tangled.”
(Researchers chose Rapunzel as a princess figure who was popular with children at the time of the study, and who is more self-reliant and adventurous than traditional fairy-tale princesses. Past studies have found that princess characters model traditional gender roles in flirting and dating, but researchers haven’t looked at how identifying with princesses affects how young children complete tasks.)
To test the value of distancing themselves psychologically from the task, two other groups of children were told to ask themselves, “Am I working hard?” or to ask the same question in the third person using their own name, “Is —- working hard?”
Children who impersonated a hero stuck to the tedious task 46% of the time, compared with 36% for the children who asked the question in the third person, and 29% for the children whose self-talk was in the first person, according to the study published in December in Child Development.
“Pretending to be strong and admirable can help a child take on those characteristics of confidence and competence,” says Rachel White, lead author and an assistant professor of psychology at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.
Pretend play can reduce anxiety and stress, helping children regulate their emotions, says Stuart Shanker, author of “Self-Reg,” a book on building executive-function skills. It also activates the brain’s reward system, transforming an onerous task into something pleasurable, says Dr. Shanker, an emeritus professor of philosophy and psychology at York University in Toronto.
Kristen Ramm of Gretna, Neb., says allowing her 6-year-old son Aidric to wear his Spider-Man costume to the grocery store as a preschooler motivated him to learn to dress himself early.
Aidric also was able to muster courage before a stressful family airplane trip to Florida in 2014 by donning his Iron Man costume, Ms. Ramm says. “People were waving at him and saying, ‘Hi, Iron Man,’ ” as he exited the plane.
Explaining superheroes’ positive traits can help children look deeper than the fighting and drama they see in videos.
Preschoolers in a 2011 study donned a Superman cape and were told the superhero had special powers and lots of patience were more than seven times more likely to be able to wait 20 minutes for a desired snack, compared with children who received no cape or instructions, according to the study of 66 children led by Rachel Karniol, a professor of social development at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Thinking about the superhuman healing powers of Wolverine of the X-Men helped Keri Stoltz’s 8-year-old son Carson steel himself against pain after he cut his forehead recently and had to have stitches. “Anytime we talk about a superhero, you can see an immediate confidence come over him,” says Ms. Stoltz, of Atlanta.
Impersonating a superhero helps children learn to see things from another’s perspective, a form of empathy that is an important foundational skill for success in adulthood, says Laura Jana, a pediatrician and author of “The Toddler Brain.” She adds, “The child is literally starting to train the brain to think like, be like and act like someone else,” says Dr. Jana, director of innovation at the University of Nebraska College of Public Health in Omaha.
This can help solve problems at home, says Rachel Robertson, vice president for education and development at Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a Watertown, Mass., child-care provider. If siblings squabble, a parent might say, “Your little sister is sad because you took the toy away from her. What would Batman do in this situation?” Ms. Robertson says.
Or if you’re going to a store where your child often whines and demands treats, invite her before you arrive to think about how a superhero might behave. “If you’re going to be Superman or Wonder Woman, what would you do in a store? Would you get upset if you don’t get what you want?” Framing the trip as a superhero challenge can change a child’s mind-set about the outing.
Q: Very interesting article about managing a demanding boss. Any tips on managing a boss who is abrasive and bellicose one day and sweet as pie the next, after realizing he’s offended people? If this were a marriage, I’d call it emotional abuse.–R.P.
A: Sounds as if your boss tends to be a bully. Don’t let him drag you down. Try to stay calm when he yells. Wait for him to vent, then summarize what he said so he knows he’s been heard. Focus on finding solutions, keeping your voice low for a calming effect.
Ask advice from a trusted mentor or colleague. If you decide to confront him about his behavior, practice with a friend first, video-recording yourself for review. Ask for a meeting, and say that while you understand that he faces pressures, you expect to be treated with courtesy and respect. Tell him how his behavior affects you, using short sentences that start with “I” to avoid making him feel attacked.
Also: Keep notes to document the problems, in case his superiors get involved.
Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com
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