Adultism is a bias or prejudice against children or youth. It has been defined as "the power adults have over children", or the abuse thereof, as well as "prejudice and accompanying systematic discrimination against young people",J. Gregoire/C. M. Jungers, The Counsellor's Companion (2007) p. 65 and "bias towards adults... and the social addiction to adults, including their ideas, activities, and attitudes". It can be considered a subtype of ageism, or prejudice and discrimination due to age in general.
This phenomenon is said to affect families, schools, justice systems, and the economy, as well as other areas of society. Its impacts are largely regarded as negative, except in cases related to child protection and the overriding social contract. Increased study of adultism has recently occurred in the fields of education, psychology, civic engagement, higher education, and further, with contributions from Europe, North America, and South America.
Definitions and terminology Origin According to one writer, "the term 'adultism' has been varyingly employed since at least the 1840s, when it was used to describe traits of an animal that matured faster than expected."Fletcher, Adam F.C. (Spring 2024) "A Future Without Adultism," Taboo; Vol. 22, Iss. 1: 61-70. More familiar to current usage, the word was used by Patterson Du Bois in 1903, with a meaning broadly similar to that used by Jack Flasher in a journal article seventy-five years later.
In France in the 1930s, the same word was used for an entirely different topic, the author describing a condition wherein a child possessed adult-like "physique and spirit": A boy of 12 and a girl of 13 who had the spirit and personality of adults.... They were placed in institutions because of stealing and prostitution. These forms of precocity lead the individual into difficulties and should be recognized early in the development of the individual.
That 1930s usage of the word in France was superseded by a late 1970s American journal article proposing that adultism is the abuse of the power that adults have over children. The author identified examples not only in parents but also in teachers, psychotherapists, the clergy, police, judges, and juries.
Usage John Bell in 1995 defined adultism as "behaviors and attitudes based on the assumptions that adults are better than young people, and entitled to act upon young people without agreement". Adam Fletcher in 2016 called it "an addiction to the attitudes, ideas, beliefs, and actions of adults." Adultism is popularly used to describe any discrimination against young people and is sometimes distinguished from ageism, which is simply prejudice on the grounds of age, although it commonly refers to prejudice against older people, not specifically against youth. It has been suggested that adultism, which is associated with a view of the self that trades on rejecting and excluding child-subjectivity, has always been present in Western culture.David Kennedy, The Well of Being(2006) p. 67
FletcherFletcher2013 suggests that adultism has three main expressions in society: Attitudinal adultism: Personal feelings, assumptions, and beliefs that form a person's attitudes about young people. This is also called internalized adultism. Cultural adultism: The shared attitudes, including beliefs and customs, promoting the assumption that adults are superior to anyone who is not identified as an adult, simply because of their age. This is also called social adultism. Structural adultism: The normalization and legitimization of historical, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal dynamics that routinely advantage adults while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for young people. This is also referred to as institutional adultism.
A study by the Crisis Prevention Institute on the prevalence of adultism found an increasing number of local youth-serving organizations addressing the issue.Tate, Thomas F. and Copas, Randall L. (Spring 2003) "Insist or Enlist?: Adultism versus Climates of Excellence," Reclaiming Children and Youth: The Journal of Strength-based Interventions, v12 n1. p 40-45. For instance, a local program (Youth Together) in Oakland, California, describes the impact of adultism, which "hinders the development of youth, in particular, their self-esteem and self-worth, ability to form positive relationships with caring adults, or even see adults as allies", on their website.Youth Together Glossary . Youth Together. Retrieved 4/1/2008.
Adultism has been used to describe the oppression of children and young people by adults, which is seen as having the same power dimension in the lives of young people as racism and sexism. When used in this sense it is a generalization of paternalism, describing the force of all adults rather than only male adults, and may be witnessed in the infantilization of children and youth. Pedophobia (the fear of children) and ephebiphobia (the fear of youth) have been proposed as antecedents to adultism.Fletcher, A. (2006) Washington Youth Voice Handbook Olympia, WA: CommonAction.
Similar terms Terms such as adult privilege, adultarchy, and adultcentrism have been proposed as descriptions of particular aspects or variants of adultism.
National Youth Rights Association describes discrimination against youth as ageism, taking that word as any form of discrimination against anyone due to their age. Advocates of using the term 'ageism' for this issue also believe it makes common cause with older people fighting against their own form of age discrimination.Alex Koroknay-Palicz's blog . Retrieved 7/20/08. However, a national organization called Youth On Board counters this based on a different meaning of "ageism", arguing that "addressing adultist behavior by calling it ageism is discrimination against youth in itself."Young, K & Sazama, J (2006) 15 Points to Successfully Involving Youth in Decision-Making. Boston: Youth On Board.
Causes In his seminal 1978 article, Flasher says that adultism is born of the belief that children are inferior, and he says it can be manifested as excessive nurturing, possessiveness, or over-restrictiveness, all of which are consciously or unconsciously geared toward excessive control of a child.Flasher, J. (1978) "Adultism." Adolescence 13(51) Fal 1978, 521. Adultism has been associated with psychological projection and splitting, a process whereby 'the one with the power attributes his or her unconscious, unresolved sexual and aggressive material' to the child – 'both the dark and the light side...hence the divine child/deficit child'Kennedy, p. 64 split.
Theologians Heather Eaton and Matthew Fox proposed, "Adultism derives from adults repressing the inner child."Eaton, H & Fox, M. "Chapter 10: Transcendent Spirit: Child Honoring and Religion." in Cavoukian, R. (Ed) & Olfman, S. (Ed). (2006). Child Honoring: How to Turn This World Around. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group. John Holt stated, "An understanding of adultism might begin to explain what I mean when I say that much of what is known as children's art is an adult invention."Holt, J. (Ed) Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling. Perseus Publishing. That perspective is seemingly supported by Maya Angelou, who remarked:
Evidence of adultism
A 2006/2007 survey conducted by the Children's Rights Alliance for England and the National Children's Bureau asked 4,060 children and young people whether they have ever been treated unfairly based on various criteria (race, age, sex, sexual orientation, etc.). A total of 43% of British youth surveyed reported experiencing discrimination based on their age, substantially more than other categories of discrimination like sex (27%), race (11%), or sexual orientation (6%).Willow, C., Franklin, A. and Shaw, C. (2007). Meeting the obligations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in England. Children and young people's messages to Government. DCSF.
Classification In addition to Fletcher, other experts have identified multiple forms of adultism, offering a typology that includes the above categories of internalized adultism,Get The Word Out! Jenny Sazama (2004). p.12 institutionalized adultism,Hernandez, D. & Rehman, B. (eds). (2002)Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism. Seal Press cultural adultism, and other forms.
Internalized adultism In a publication published by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, University of Michigan professor Barry Checkoway asserts that internalized adultism causes youth to "question their own legitimacy, doubt their ability to make a difference" and perpetuate a "culture of silence" among young people.Adults as Allies (1998) WK Kellogg Foundation. Retrieved 4/1/2008.
"Adultism convinces us as children that children don't really count," reports an investigative study, and it "becomes extremely important to us [children] to have the approval of adults and be 'in good' with them, even if it means betraying our fellow children. This aspect of internalized adultism leads to such phenomena tattling on our siblings or being the 'teacher's pet,' to name just two examples."
Other examples of internalized adultism include many forms of violence imposed upon children and youth by adults who are reliving the violence they faced as young people, such as corporal punishment, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, and community incidents that include store policies prohibiting youth from visiting shops without adults, and police, teachers, or parents chasing young people from areas without just cause.
Institutional adultism Institutional adultism may be apparent in any instance of systemic bias, where formalized limitations or demands are placed on people simply because of their young age. Policies, laws, rules, organizational structures, and systematic procedures each serve as mechanisms to leverage, perpetuate, and instill adultism throughout society. These limitations are often reinforced through physical force, coercion or police actions and are often seen as double standards.Males, M. (1997) Framing Youth: 10 Myths about the Next Generation. "Courts have explicitly ruled that policy-makers may impose adult responsibilities and punishments on individual youths as if they were adults at the same time laws and policies abrogate adolescents’ rights en masse as if they were children." This treatment is increasingly seen as a form of gerontocracy.Monitor Breakfast with James Carville and Stanley Greenberg "This is not class warfare, this is generational warfare. This administration and old wealthy people have declared war on young people. That is the real war that is going on here. And that is the war we've got to talk about." - James CarvilleGatto, J.T. (2002) The Underground History of American Education "Children allowed to take responsibility and given a serious part in the larger world are always superior to those merely permitted to play and be passive. At the age of twelve, Admiral Farragut got his first command."
Institutions perpetuating adultism may include the fiduciary, legal, educational, communal, religious, and governmental sectors of a community. Social science literature has identified adultism as "within the context of the social inequality and the oppression of children, where children are denied human rights and are disproportionately victims of maltreatment and exploitation."
Institutional adultism may be present in:
as well as legal issues affecting adolescence and total institutions.
Cultural adultism