Girl + Black: Adultification Bias

According to research findings, adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers - as young as five to nine years old. The results align with lived experiences (Blake & Epstein, 2019).



The main findings:

Black girls routinely experience adultification bias.
Adultification is linked to harsher treatment and higher standards for black girls in school.
Adults have less empathy for black girls than their white peers, who are viewed as more innocent and in need of protection and comforting.
Negative stereotypes of black women are mapped onto black girls, which can lay the foundation for adultification bias.
Adults attempt to enforce traditional white norms of femininity on black girls.
Adultification bias can lead educators to treat black girls in developmentally inappropriate ways.
Socialised adultification contributes to adultification bias.

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- Blake, J. J. & Epstein, R. (2019). Listening to Black Women and Girls: Lived Experiences of Adultification Bias. Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, link
- photograph by Vivian Maier via