 Rather than allowing the adult to simply share their view, adultcentrism acknowledges the powerlessness and inability of young people to actually affect the systems of authority adults have created.This creates barriers to effective practice with children; adultcentrism is said to be akin to egocentrism, where one puts their personal perspectives, needs and beliefs ahead of all others, as well as ethnocentrism, which places a person's cultural and social beliefs ahead of all others.Explaining adultcentrism, one author reports,

In the field of occupational therapy adultcentrism has been said to "lead researchers to underestimate children's abilities."