Social science literature has identified adultism as "within the context of the social inequality and the oppression of children, where children are denied human rights and are disproportionately victims of maltreatment and exploitation."
Literatura socijalne politike je identifikovala adultizam kao ''kontekst socijalne nejednakosti i ugnjetavanja dece, u kom se deci poriču ljudska prava i gde su deca žrtve zlostavljanja i eksploatacije.''