When I hear the saying, “Children should be children,” I interpret that to mean that children should be allowed to experience childhood and be treated as children, without the pressures and responsibilities of being an adult.
But what if children aren’t given this opportunity? What if they are expected to act older than they actually are and are treated negatively when they don’t? This phenomenon is called “adultification,” and in an eye-opening article and accompanying video abstract entitled, “Adultification of Young Black Females on Their Health and Wellbeing: A Qualitative Study,” which is being early released in Pediatrics this week, Dr. Daniela Brissett and colleagues at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and 2 non-profit organizations supporting youth explore the impact of adultification among 13-24-year-old Black females and their caregivers (10.1542/peds.2024-069110).
Participants completed several activities, including:
- Qualitative interviews
- Sharing photos of themselves or their children as adolescents
- Creating visual or audio artworks in response to the question, “How should Black girls and young Black women be best represented in society?”
- Discussing the photos and artworks during the interviews.
Additionally, participants could have an optional mental health debriefing session, which was led by a pediatric psychologist who used trauma-sensitive principles. Of note, approximately one-third of youth and caregivers took part in these optional debriefing sessions.
Twenty-six youth (mean age 16 years) and 25 caregivers participated. Common themes included:
- Although all youth wanted to be treated as a child, they often had to assume adult-like responsibilities, such as cooking, cleaning, and caring for siblings, at an early age.
- Because of their race and body shape, the youth experienced hyper-sexualization, which often led to mental health issues, self-harm behaviors, early sexual experiences, and social isolation.
- Culturally responsive and empathetic mental health support and medical care are needed and wanted.
- Less criminalization of Black girls in schools is needed.
- More Black healthcare providers and teachers are needed.
How do we as healthcare professionals help? In an invited commentary, Rebecca Epstein, JD, at Georgetown University Law Center emphasizes that, even though there are no easy solutions, the first step is to recognize any implicit or explicit adultification bias in how we and our practices approach these patients (10.1542/peds.2024-069924). Dr. Brissett and colleagues encourages us to “model equitable, age-appropriate care that honors the humanity and individuality of Black girls.”
