The perceived adultism scale: Initial validation of an instrument measuring youth experiences of age-based oppression

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Seventy F. Hall

Published: 31 Jan 2025, Last Modified: 19 Dec 2025Applied Developmental ScienceEveryoneRevisionsCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: Despite growing interest in youth oppression (i.e. adultism), there are no quantitative measures of youths’ perceived experiences of this construct. We addressed this gap by evaluating the psychometric properties of the Perceived Adultism Scale (PAS), administered to 703 racialized or LGBTQ+ women and gender-expansive youth living in Melbourne (Australia), Toronto (Canada), and New York City (USA) as part of a larger multimethod study. Exploratory factor analysis pointed to a one-factor solution explaining 54.41% (NYC) to 61.31% (Melbourne) of the variance in the final 7-item PAS. Internal consistency was high (α = .862 − .892), and the PAS demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. However, there were differences across cities in items’ respective contributions to the factor model, indicating psychometric nonequivalence across geographically-defined cultures. We contextualize our findings, discuss the strengths and limitations of our study, and suggest how the PAS might be used in youth work and research on youth development.