Childism can refer either to advocacy for empowering children as a subjugated group or to prejudice and/or discrimination against children or childlike qualities.
The concept is first described and explored in an article by Chester M. Pierce and Gail B. Allen in 1975.
[4] It was used in time in the 1990s in literary theory by Peter Hunt to refer to "to read as children.
"[5] An extensive treatment of childism as a negative phenomenon is found in Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's last work, published posthumously, Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children.
[6] In the field of international human rights studies childism is a critical phenomenon based on Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's work, used to explore intersectional discrimination against children that challenge the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.