Research Project on Discrimination Based on Perceived Age as too Young

Research on age discrimination in Germany has so far focused primarily on discrimination against older people, while discrimination against people perceived as “too young” has received less attention.

Against this background, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency has commissioned Prof. Dr. Lars Alberth and Prof. Dr. Birte Siem (both at the Institute for Social Work and Social Pedagogy) to conduct systematic and participatory research into adultism and discrimination on the basis of an age perceived as too young in Germany. The aim is to investigate how discrimination is experienced and perceived by adolescents and young adults in particular and how those affected deal with it in everyday life. The research team, which also includes Dr. Iniobong Essien and Verena Marke, addresses these questions as part of an interdisciplinary empirical study that integrates childhood sociological approaches to participatory research with young people and socio-psychological approaches to discrimination.

The main objectives of the study are

To record experiences of and ways of dealing with adultism and discrimination on the basis of being perceived as too young, particularly in the 14 to 27 age group.
To record the prevalence and manifestation of adultist and discriminatory attitudes towards people perceived as too young in the population.
Investigating the intersectional interweaving of adultism and discrimination based on a perceived young age with other forms of unequal treatment (e.g., racism).
Development of empowerment strategies for those affected and recommendations for action for state, economic and civil society actors.

A specially established, participatory and diverse monitoring committee of young people will be involved in all steps of the study. The mixed-methods study consists of three main elements:

Systematic and integrative survey of the state of research on the forms, causes and consequences of adultism and discrimination on the grounds of being perceived as too young.
Group workshops (including focus groups) with young people, to examine their their everyday live experiences and the consequences of adultism and discrimination due to being perceived as too young (qualitative part of the study).
Survey with vignette experiment to record adultist and discriminatory attitudes towards people perceived as too young and corresponding experiences in the population. In addition, the causal role of the discriminatory characteristic “age perceived as too young” will be investigated (quantitative part of the study).

The results of the study– together with the participatory monitoring committee – will contribute to heighten the social visibility of individual and collective knowledge about the unequal treatment of people perceived as too young. On this basis, strategies for empowering young people as well as measures to reduce adultist and age-related discrimination will be developed.

The study will be published in the first quarter of 2026.