Kids can feel badly about themselves for many reasons. Sometimes a teacher at school is using an angry face or tone of voice to discipline the children with. They can internalize this anger and assume they must be bad in order to provoke such a look of disgust. Your own anger will do the same thing of course, even if you never actually say that he is a bad boy and so forth. It is the look and sound of anger that tells a child he is bad, worthless and deficient. Just have someone take a photograph of you when you are really mad at your kids. Then blow that photo up really large like a poster so you can see how it would look to a small child. Even though you might be mad over something very specific ("Don't you ever poke your sister in the eye again!") the look and sound of anger convey a larger message ("You little no good brat!). So just be careful not to use anger as a parenting tool (see "Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice" for alternative strategies to anger). Sometimes it is notangry teachers or parents but some unkind child who has triggered these feelings in a youngster. Just one child saying some hurtful things to a sensitive child can cause that child to feel rejected and rejectable on a larger scale. Even well-liked kids can have an enemy or two. Another factor that can cause a child to make derogatory remarks about himself is his own internal negative voice. Some kids (and adults) are just hard on themselves. No matter what the source, the treatment will be the same. Acknowledge what your son is saying. "You think you're bad and no one likes you?" Show him you hear and accept his words. Don't try to talk him out of it. Instead, name his feelings. "That sounds so sad." Just giving him a chance to talk about his sadness can be very helpful. Reasurrance has a funny way of causing a problem to continue and even increase. Therefore, try your hardest not to offer reasurrance (as in, "no, you're a very good boy.") If you are comfortable with what he is saying, he's more likely to correct himself on his own by saying something like, "I'm not really bad am I?" and then you can jump in with "No you're not bad at all!" It makes a huge difference to his "recovery" if he can utter the sentence himself instead of having it handed to him. I know it's hard to watch your youngster be in pain. However, keep in mind that you are doing the best you can for him as you support him through hard times. If you see that your son persists in these kinds of statements even after you have used these strategies for awhile, then do check with your child's doctor and/or take him to a professional mental health practitioner to explore more options.    Sarah Chana