Adultification bias: what is it and how does it affect society?

Childhood is, in most cases, a time of innocence, happiness, tenderness and naivety. Boys and girls discover a vast world as they interact with their peers and grow, assimilating new knowledge.

Unfortunately, adults sometimes see these children as older than they really are and far from treating them with the same respect, what happens is that they judge them much harsher.

This phenomenon, which is called adultification bias, has been seen especially common in schools in the United States., especially when treating black girls that it seems that their skin tone makes them become little women in the eyes of their teachers, law enforcement, and even their own fathers.

This matter is truly controversial and complex, and then we are going to look at it in as much depth as possible.

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What is adultification bias?

Children are children. Childhood is the most beautiful and innocent time for most people. It is a time when we dedicate ourselves to playing with our friends, discovering new experiences and we learn a lot at school. However, not all children are treated in the same way and, subtly but leaving a very deep mark on their lives, they are attributes to them a greater degree of responsibility for their actions and, consequently, a greater severity in their errors: this is the adultification.

Adultification bias, in its strictest sense, would refer to how adults view children from a more adult perspective, even though they are aware of their age. These children are judged as if they were fully responsible for what they do and behaviors seen as innocent in other children in those in particular are seen as true acts of aggression.

So, at first, adultification bias may be a bit difficult to understand. What motive would lead an adult to treat a child as young as 6 years old more adultly? Actually this bias could occur in any context, but is especially common when talking about black North American girls. Despite the great strides that African Americans and women have made in the past 100 years, they are still treated unfairly in many contexts, and if we combine being black with being a woman, far from adding injustices they multiply them, and girls are not exempt from it.

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Black girls, little women

It is no secret that in the United States, despite the fight for civil rights, African Americans continue to face more risks than the average white person. While racial segregation is long gone, movements like Black Lives Matter remind us that being black means being treated worse, even when you're just a child. There are not a few cases of African American children who have been killed by the police who saw them as a threat, despite the fact that they would never have done it with a white child of the same age.

The same is the case with women. Regardless of race, girls are viewed negatively in relation to boys when they behave exactly the same as boys.. For a boy to prevail over the other kids is seen as a leadership trait, of knowing how to lead a group, while if a girl does it, she will be seen as bossy. Another example of these is where boys speak louder, but girls scream. Growing up, the men who run the show will be seen as winners, while the women as usurpers, dominatrixes, and bullies.

This type of discrimination can already be perceived in the earliest childhood And if both characteristics meet, that is, being black and a woman, the matter is even more exaggerated. Even when they are under 6 years old, black girls in the United States are treated in a very adult way, as if they were little women. It is not that they are spoken to as if they were adults, but rather that they are judged as if they were. If the girl does a mischief, typical of a girl her age, the simple fact of being black will make it look more like a serious intentional assault rather than an innocent act.

Another case is the fact that the damage done to these black girls is relativized. By being seen as more adult, they are attributed a greater degree of maturity and responsibility, with which it makes them see them as more prepared to face the aggressions that the rest of their peers of the same age can do to them. That is, despite the fact that we are talking about very young girls, under 12 years old, many teachers, unconsciously, they assume that they are going to treat their problems under the same adult perspective with which they see themselves these girls.

We have an example in what exposes the testimony of a young African American to whom we are going to refer to us as A., who when she went to school in the 90's had a very good white friend called K. In turn, K. she had another friend, C., who had no sympathy for A. One day, C. she was jealous that K. she wanted to play with A., whereupon she went to A. and scratched her arms. TO. she asked why she did this and C. she replied, literally, "I can't play with you because you're black, I want to get the dirt off you."

This is obviously a case of racism. A white girl has assaulted a black girl by explicitly telling her that she has a problem with her race. What did the teachers do? Did they catch the three girls talking to them about what happened? Well, it was not like that. The professor, still watching the scene, told A. for her to stop crying, to get on with her day, and they started class. The teacher assumed that A., no matter how young she was, would assume that sooner or later the girl would understand that there is racism in this world, far from facing it by taking advantage of its status of authority.

It is clear that with this episode in the United States, both teachers, law enforcement officers and even the girls' own parents assume that black girls are more adult and less innocent than girls white. They also see them as less in need of protection, in the sense that if they have a problem with the rest of the her classmates themselves are going to manage to solve it and, if not, it is that they are the trouble.

Despite awareness of the rights of African Americans and women, society has not yet acquired the sufficient level of critical analysis to understand how her prejudices and biases influence the way she sees reality. Even teachers, who should be the group most promoting anti-racist and feminist change, are victims of it, making something as subtle as judging a girl scandalous when she has barely raised her voice is another way to perpetuate injustices.

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Greater adulthood, greater harshness in punishments

Adultification bias has been scientifically investigated and extensively exposed by the Poverty and Inequality Legal Center of Georgetown University, which showed how African-American women between the ages of 12 and 60 had been categorized at some point in their lives as loud, scandalous, boisterous and highly disruptive, even at their most tender childhood.

Being seen as an adult results in being punished more often than her white companions. There is a 20% African American population in the United States, however, looking at the statistics on girls punished or expelled from school, 54% of them are black girls.

One might think that they actually behave worse because blacks have a worse socioeconomic status compared to whites. However, taking into account his financial income and the large number of racist incidents (p. eg, George Floyd) behind these percentages would be the adultification bias.

As we have commented with the case of A., the adultification bias makes adults not even consider that these black girls do not stop being that, girls, and that like any other they need emotional help when something bad happens to them. By attributing them greater adulthood and, therefore, greater responsibility in their actions, if they are the who have done something wrong, even if unintentionally, automatically attribute a clear intentionality. More than a mischief they see it as a behavior problem or because they are bad.

An example of this we have with the testimony of a black girl who, when she changed schools, she saw that the new institution did not want to accept her. The reason for this was that in her file it stated that one day, while she was playing at recess, one of the balls she was playing with landed in the face of another girl and accidentally injured her. Far from asking the teachers what had happened to her or taking her to the principal's office to clarify her matter, the teacher she in charge of the yard shift she pointed it out in her file as a clear aggression, causing her to have the macula as a child highly problematic.

Resume

Despite the great advances that have been made in terms of gender equality and racial diversity, today There are many microaggressions, prejudices and biases that influence our way of perceiving the behavior of black people and women. These are manifested in a very strong way especially when we talk about black girls, at least in the North American context, who due to a defenseless position as they are not adults but seen as such are judged more harshly than their peers white.

The adultification bias, insofar as it implies attributing adult characteristics to boys, especially in this case to black American girls, makes that what is seen as a simple innocent behavior in other boys and girls, a naive childish prank, in these girls is seen as a authentic declaration of intentions: the bad one, she is a girl who wants to give problems, and she knows what she does with which she must punish her very strongly.

Although much has been achieved, it is still not enough. Until people learn to identify and reduce this type of bias associated with race and gender, we will not achieve full equality. Schools must become the place where these injustices are cushioned and dispelled and it is the task of the adults, while they are truly responsible for their actions, not 6-year-old girls, who must help to get it. Let us behave like adults and see children for what they are, boys and girls.

Bibliographic references:

• Burton, L. (2007). Childhood adultification in economically disadvantaged families: A conceptual model. Family Relations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 56 (4), 329–345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2007.00463.x
• Gerding Speno, A., & Aubrey, J. S. (2018). Sexualization, Youthification, and Adultification: A Content Analysis of Images of Girls and Women in Popular Magazines. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 95 (3), 625–646. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699017728918
• Epstein, R., Blake, J. J., González, T. (2014) Girlhood interrupted: The Erasure of Blach Girls ’Childhood. Center of Poverty and Inequality. Georgetown Law. United States. Taken from: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/poverty-inequality-center/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2017/08/girlhood-interrupted.pdf