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Adolescents’ depression and anxiety have increased over the past decade and further heightened since the COVID-19 pandemic (CDC, 2023; Daly, 2022). Although adolescents’ mental health challenges have many complex causes, this study emphasizes an unrecognized factor shaping adolescents’ mental health: ageism against adolescents. This ageism is characterized by deficit-based thinking about youth and attempts to demean, devalue, tokenize, and patronize youth based on age. By centering adolescents’ perspectives, this study draws connections between adolescents’ experiences of ageism and mental health.
Methods
This inductive qualitative study consisted of interviews with 40 adolescents ages 15-18 (47.5% female, 45% male, 7.5% gender non-binary) from different racial and ethnic groups (25% Asian, 20% Black, 13% Latino/a/x/e, 25% white, 17.5% multiracial) recruited nationally via Instagram. Interviews asked youth how they define and experience ageism, how ageism intersects with racism and gender discrimination, and how ageism affects their lives. Analyses included open coding, focused coding, memoing, and team discussion to identify themes.
Results
Two themes highlight links between adolescents’ experiences of ageism and mental health. First, adults in schools, families, and elsewhere minimized youth’s emotions and mental health challenges by assuming “it’s just a phase.” Juan Pablo (18-year-old Asian and Latinx male) shared, “Teenagers are talking about how they might have a mental condition or that they would like to receive treatment or support or diagnosis for it. A lot of times adults just invalidate them and say, ‘Oh, it's because you're a teenager, like, you have these mood swings, or you have these episodes where you're feeling really down because you're a teenager, not because you have a mental health condition.’” Others described how parents minimize emotions by drawing on ageist stereotypes; Adam (17-year-old Asian male) said, “We, all teens experience a lot of emotions...parents are like, 'Oh, teens these days are so sensitive, right?'" When adults deny adolescents’ emotions and mental health challenges, these experiences can affect adolescents’ access to mental health support and treatment.
Second, ageism in many forms can have negative mental health consequences for adolescents. Lucy (18-year-old white female) explained that after experiencing ageism, “It's like I'm being condescended on this side. But I think that kind of drives you into isolation, which can drive you into being really sulky.” Elisha (17-year-old Black female) said, “People discredit their [adolescents’] emotions, because they're like, it's just a teenager thing...And usually it comes from parents...and people really internalize that from their parents and that causes a whole bunch of mental health issues.” Thus, experiencing ageism takes a toll on adolescents’ mental health. Additional findings show that adolescents’ experiences and consequences of ageism can be compounded by racism and cisheterosexism.
Conclusions and Implications
Ageism against adolescents is an under-recognized barrier to adolescent well-being and mental health support. Identifying ageism is a first step to challenging it, and social workers can combat ageism against adolescents by educating adults about adolescents’ holistic development and how to supportively respond to emotions and signs of distress.