Introduction
The current use of the term adultism was first defined in 1978 by psychologist Jack Flasher (Flasher, 1978). In was later taken up and established as a meaningful concept by academics, researchers and advocates within the children’s right movement and the sociology of childhood. Critical psychologists, critical developmental psychologists, and liberation psychologists working at the interface with childhood studies use this term to describe and explain not only children’s disadvantaged position within social life but also their positioning within adult-centric research and paternalistic practice generated by the field of mainstream psychology (Burman, 2008; LeFrançois, 2013; Watts & Flanagan, 2007). Not a new term, adultism has been taken up most significantly within Northern Europe.
Definition
Adultism is understood as the oppression experienced by children and young people at the hands of adults and adult-produced/adult-tailored systems. It relates to the sociopolitical...
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LeFrançois, B.A. (2014). Adultism. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_6
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