Does work during childhood affect the health of Guatemalan adults?

Abstract

The diversity of potential relationships between child labor and health makes the empirical disentanglement of the causal relationship a difficult exercise. This paper examines the long run impact of child labour on health by controlling for unobserved household specific characteristics. In order to control for the unobserved households specific effect, we estimate a conditional fixed effect model using data on siblings constructed from the Guatemalan National Survey of Living Condition. The estimation results reinforce the conventional wisdom that child labor is harmful for health in the long run. The results can be interpreted as a lower bound of the true impact since healthier children are most likely to offer themselves for employment and to be appointe

Child Labor in Guatemalan Children: An International Pilot Study of the Emotional Effects and Consequences

“…The findings of this study are important because they show that, in addition to the detrimental effects of child labor on the health of the children (O'Donnell et al, 2005;Rosati & Straub, 2007) and on their academic achievement (Heady, 2003;Psacharopoulos, 1997), there may also be harmful emotional effects.…”

“…Some researchers have addressed the effects of labor on the health of working children (O'Donnell, Rosati, & van Doorslaer, 2005;Rosati & Straub, 2007). Several researchers have also examined issues related to the economic impact of child labor (Jensen & Skyt Nielsen, 1997;Patrinos & Psacharopoulos, 1997), and others have linked this issue with educational achievement, with child labor contributing to lower academic achievement (Heady, 2003;Psacharopoulos, 1997).…”

Integrating Economic Strengthening and Family Coaching to Reduce Work-Related Health Hazards Among Children of Poor Households: Burkina Faso

“…A lack of effect of the intervention on child's work-related health outcomes might, at least partially, be due to the so-called "healthy worker effect" suggesting that the healthiest persons are most likely to work [3]. Relating "today's health" with "today's work" might miss important health implications that occur after a while: adults who entered the work force when they were children report lower health [37,38]. Therefore, future research looking into long-term impact of child work would be vital.…”

The state of child labor protections in 193 countries: Are countries living up to their international commitments?

“…Studies of child laborers in countries around the world have documented high rates of work-related injuries (Beegle et al, 2009;Dalal et al, 2015;Doocy et al, 2007;Nuwayhid et al, 2005;Tiwari et al, 2004;Wolff and Maliki, 2008); high levels of toxicity (Ide and Parker, 2005;Junaid et al, 2017;Nuwayhid et al, 2005;Sughis et al, 2012); chronic sleep deprivation, malnutrition, exposure to hazardous chemicals and increased risk of injury, as well as verbal, physical or sexual abuse (International Labour Organization, 2007;Matsuno and Blagbrough, 2006;de Silva-de-Alwis, 2008;Zainab and Kadir, 2016); and poor mental health outcomes (Sturrock and Hodes, 2016). Moreover, a number of studies have shown that the health effects of laboring at an early age result in an increase in the likelihood of experiencing poor health outcomes as adults (Kassouf et al, 2001;Nuwayhid et al, 2005;O'Donnell et al, 2005;Rosati and Straub, 2007;Wolff and Maliki, 2008), including having at least one chronic disease and experiencing difficulty with mobility (Akee et al, 2010;Lee and Orazem, 2010;Nishijima et al, 2015).…”