Evaluations of Interventions with Child Domestic Workers: A Rapid Systematic Review

Abstract

Little is known about interventions to support the education, skills training, and health of female child domestic workers (CDWs). This rapid systematic literature review followed PRISMA guidelines (PROSPERO registration: CRD42019148702) and summarises peer-reviewed and grey literature on health, education, and economic interventions for CDWs and interventions targeting employers. We searched six electronic databases and purposively searched grey literature. We included observational studies, which included an intervention, quasi-experimental, and experimental studies. Two reviewers independently screened articles. Data were extracted on intervention description, inputs, activities, type of evaluation, outcomes, effect size or impact where applicable, limitations, and ethical considerations. All studies were quality appraised. We identified eight papers from five studies. Six papers reported on health-related outcomes, two on education-related outcomes, and three on economic outcomes. No evaluations of employer-related interventions were identified. Only one intervention specifically targeted CDWs. Others included CDWs in their sample but did not disaggregate data for CDWs. Findings suggest that the evaluated interventions had a limited impact on CDW’s health, education, and economic outcomes. While it appears feasible to reach CDWs with outreach interventions, further work is needed to improve the consistency of their effectiveness and their ability to improve CDWs’ current and future prospects.

Child Domestic Work, Violence, and Health Outcomes: A Rapid Systematic Review

“…Because these youths work in relative isolation, away from public view, initiatives to address emotional, physical, or sexual abuse and promote healthy child development will have to address the behaviors of employers while identifying the most effective ways to provide support to abused youths. Community-based violence-prevalence interventions that include poverty reduction alongside psycho-social activities in areas where there is a high density of CDWs may have promise [ 61 ]. However, these strategies may also exclude youth who are the least visible and hardest to reach.…”

Are Child Domestic Workers Worse Off than Their Peers? Comparing Children in Domestic Work, Child Marriage, and Kinship Care with Biological Children of Household Heads: Evidence from Zimbabwe

“…Broadly, there are many more studies of interventions for child marriage than for CDWs. Recent systematic reviews have found just one CDW targeted intervention among five evaluations, compared with 30 quasi-experimental and experimental evaluations targeting child brides [ 16 , 18 ]. There are no studies on disability among CDW, and among child brides, there is insufficient evidence on whether children with disabilities are more or less at risk than those without disabilities [ 19 ].…”