What is adultization bias?

Instead of happy memories of playing hide-and-seek and roasting marshmallows, Lauren Nix’s memories of summer camp are less playful and light-hearted. Rather, they are overshadowed by examples of what experts call adultization bias.

“When I was about five years old, I was attending a summer day camp in Brooklyn, and I remember being targeted multiple times by one of the male camp counselors because my pants were ‘too short.’ ” she recalls. “I had no idea what was going on and just kept getting into trouble.”

In addition to being scolded for her attire, Nix was often sent home for violating the camp’s dress code.

Nix, a kindergartener at the time, had no words to explain what she had endured. Now, as a 20-year-old junior studying international studies and sociology at Spelman College, she calls it “adultization bias.”

“Now that I’m much older, I understand that black girls are more likely to be disciplined and reprimanded for wearing the same type of clothing than other girls,” Nix says. Masu. “The problem wasn’t me or what I was wearing, it was the adult men who thought it was the problem, and they were sexualizing me.”

The core of adultization bias is that adults treat children as if they are more mature than they actually are. It can have harmful effects, and the “prejudice” part is about the fact that it’s especially likely to happen to black children.

In 2017, the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality released a report on this topic. Interrupted girlhood: The erasure of black girls’ childhoods. The report states that adultification is “ultimately a form of dehumanization” that robs Black children of their purity, and that “violations of Black youth are intentionally malicious rather than the result of immature decision-making. “This is a key feature.” In childhood. ”

The report includes a survey of 325 U.S. adults from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. They completed an online survey that included questions such as: [or white] Do women look older than their age? ” and “How independent are black people?” [or white] women are? As a result, adults, regardless of background, view black girls between the ages of 5 and 19 as less innocent, more independent, and in need of less support and nurturing than white girls. Shown. This difference peaked in views of children between the ages of 10 and 14.

“They just look at them as if they’re some kind of adult person. They don’t need to be protected,” said Peter, a licensed clinical social worker at Hearts Empowerment in Caldwell, New Jersey. Marline Francois-Madden, CEO of the Counseling Center, said: The adults who adult these children view them as “more likely to be aware of adult content.” They are more likely to be sexualized or hypersexualized,” Francois-Madden says. “So these are just prejudices that other people have.”

Although adultization bias affects Black boys and other groups of children, most recent research on adultization has focused on its effects on Black girls.

of Interrupted girlhood The findings also show that these biases are correlated with the treatment of Black girls in the educational and juvenile justice systems. For example, if black girls are perceived as mature by adults and authority figures, they are more likely to receive harsher treatment and more lenient treatment.

François Madden wrote: The State of Black Girls: Your go-to guide to creating safe spaces for Black girls,Agree.

“Whether in urban communities, in predominantly white institutions, or in private schools, we find that many girls are being educated by people who don’t look like them,” Francois-Madden said. To tell. “So the majority of teachers may be white educators. And they experience it firsthand in the classroom setting, where they are sent to the principal’s office for some type of disciplinary action.” I can see that,” she says. “And whether it’s stories of sexual assault, the way teachers treat them in the classroom, or whether it’s a colleague who is making racist comments, teachers don’t listen to their stories. They don’t listen to them. They ignore them.”

This treatment can have negative effects on black girls. As a result, internalization can manifest itself in a myriad of ways. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the signs and act accordingly.

“Oftentimes, black women don’t feel safe in these environments, or they start to have some sort of psychological stressor, like anxiety or depression,” Francois-Madden said. “People don’t realize how much racism can affect the mental health of Black girls.”

Francois-Madden says to watch for changes in your child’s behavior or patterns. “If your child’s sleeping habits, eating habits, or grades start to decline, be on the lookout for any unusual habits.” These may be signs that your child has experienced some kind of trauma related to adultization bias. That could be a red flag, she says.

In some cases, black girls are held to higher academic standards, another aspect of this bias.

There is no direct answer to why black girls and teens are perceived as adults beyond their age. But there are also theories.

“Black children are often taught to act more mature than their age. This was a way to survive,” says Wheeler Poitevian. “I think the root causes are multifaceted: white supremacy, objectification, lack of bodily autonomy, and personal responsibility for the trauma inflicted. When a girl is called a pussy, it’s because of her clothes. This is because it is “too tight.” When she is reprimanded for talking at school, she becomes “disruptive” rather than sociable. ”

Although there are increasing instances of adultization bias in the news and social media, this phenomenon is not new. In the age of 24-hour news cycles and social media, Francois-Madden suggests that it is becoming more common for us to see examples of this in our daily lives.

“I think what we’re seeing now is that we have access to media, we have access to technology,” she says. “So we’re watching the news in real time. We’re seeing girls being policed ​​by school staff, being policed ​​by local police officers, being policed ​​for having cellphones in the classroom. In the video, you can see officers pinning the girls to the floor.

And for Wheeler Poitevian, the constant flow of media has its upsides.

“While there are many posts and reels that shame girls for being early or criticizing their parents, there are others that offer a different perspective,” she says. “More content creators are providing a conscious parenting perspective and a more nurturing response for young Black daughters. Social media is becoming more and more accessible to new generations looking to break generational patterns. We can provide a way to spread support.”

Leveraging social media is a great tool for raising awareness about adultization bias. But there is still work to be done.

“I think awareness and training are essential to combating adultization bias,” Nix says. “Years ago, there was no name for this. Now that we understand there is a disparity, it’s not just white adults who make black children into adults, so this bias of adults of all races. We need to work in classrooms and other areas to curb this.”

She offers words of encouragement to young girls who, like Nicks, have experienced adultization bias.

“My advice to young black tweens going through this is to speak up every time it happens,” Nix says. “If you feel you’ve been wronged by someone, let them know. Call them out and make them listen to you.”