COMMITTEE CHAIR: Dr. Camille Gibson

TITLE: THE ADULTIFICATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN GIRLS: PERCEPTIONS, EXPERIENCES, AND IMPACT ON BEHAVIOR

ABSTRACT: Adultification refers to when adults treat children like they are more mature than they are. This is particularly likely to happen to Black children (Pope, 2022). When adultification happens in the home, it is the result of deficits amongst the adult figures therein, economic disadvantage, and, or mental illness; however, when the adultification is from outside of the family, the source is usually implicit biases, with especially negative consequences for young Black children (Cooke & Halberstadt, 2021). These biases can impact children negatively regarding their self-perception, self-esteem, and self-identity. It can play out in ways that may jeopardize their health, education, experiences with discipline, and likelihood of contact with the justice system (Koch & Kozhumam, 2022).This qualitative descriptive study utilized focus groups of primarily young adults between 18 and 26 to understand their perceptions, experiences, attitudes, values, and opinions regarding young Black girls and their possible adultification. The data were collected from 13 focus groups. There were five groups of young Black girls with 15 respondents in all, three groups of young Black boys (11 respondents), two groups of Non-Black/ African American girls (8 respondents), and two groups of Non-Black/ African American boys (5); and one group of older Black women (5). The groups spoke about perceptions of young Black girls in the US, including any experiences of adultification. Data were analyzed with manual coding and with the aid of Atlas-ti qualitative data management program to identify emic codes, patterns, and themes in the responses. The preliminary code list (of etic codes) includes concepts such as victimization, coping behaviors, use of physical violence in self-defense, and the likelihood of adultifying others. The findings indicate that adultification affects Black girls and stems from both Black and non-Black individuals. This bias is a source of underlying trauma, which in turn triggers a response described as “the clapback,” a form of resilience specific to Black girls. Several themes were identified – Familial Expectations, Differential Treatment, White Femininity, Perceived as “Loud” and “Rowdy,” and Dichotomous Image – Mature Early yet Seen as Slow. The results offer insights for re-educating parents, school, and justice system personnel toward improved trajectories and life outcomes for African American girls. In turn, this study adds to the literature on how to dismantle common misperceptions of Black girls as a result of adultifying them that have the potential of putting them in “school to prison pipeline

Keywords: Adultification, School to prison pipeline, Black Girls, Trendsetters, Racism

Room Location: Don Clark, Room 332.