Lifetime Paid Work and Mental Health Problems among Poor Urban 9‐to‐13‐Year‐Old Children in Brazil

Abstract

Objective. To verify if emotional/behavioral problems are associated with lifetime paid work in poor urban children, when taking into account other potential correlates. Methods. Cross-sectional study focused on 9-to-13-year-old children (n = 212). In a probabilistic sample of clusters of eligible households (women 15–49 years and son/daughter <18 years), one mother-child pair was randomly selected per household (n = 813; response rate = 82.4%). CBCL/6-18 identified child emotional/behavioral problems. Potential correlates include child gender and age, socioeconomic status/SES, maternal education, parental working status, and family social isolation, among others. Multivariate analysis examined the relationship between emotional/behavioral problems and lifetime paid work in the presence of significant correlates. Findings. All work activities were non-harmful (e.g., selling fruits, helping parents at their small business, and baby sitting). Children with lower SES and socially isolated were more involved in paid work than less disadvantaged peers. Children ever exposed to paid work were four times more likely to present anxiety/depression symptoms at a clinical level compared to non-exposed children. Multivariate modeling identified three independent correlates: child pure internalizing problems, social isolation, and low SES. Conclusion. There is an association between lifetime exposure to exclusively non-harmful paid work activities and pure internalizing problems even when considering SES variability and family social isolation.

Hazardous Child Labour, Psychosocial Functioning, and School Dropouts among Children in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS)

“…These findings on the effects of child labour are not surprising and reflect the large body of literature on the harmful effects of child labour, including studies in Brazil [19], Ethiopia [20] and India [21], where there are reported associations between hazardous/child labour and poor psychosocial well-being. The current study adds to the evidence base by demonstrating that children working under hazardous work conditions with/without child labour have greater psychosocial functioning difficulty.…”

Child Labor and Psychosocial Wellbeing: Findings from Ethiopia

“…Among the few studies that have been conducted, emotional disorders are found to be more common among child laborers than non-laborers [17][18][19][20]. Time spent on hard and repetitive work, over which children have little control, is identified as a cause of demoralization [21] and exhaustion [22]. Work that keeps children away from their homes or peers is a cause of isolation [14,21,23], and work that forces children to leave school causes the loss of social and educational opportunities [14,21,22].…”

“…Time spent on hard and repetitive work, over which children have little control, is identified as a cause of demoralization [21] and exhaustion [22]. Work that keeps children away from their homes or peers is a cause of isolation [14,21,23], and work that forces children to leave school causes the loss of social and educational opportunities [14,21,22]. Work can also be a place where the child is subjected to abuse and violence [24,25] and increased risks of accidents [26][27][28].…”

Mental health among adolescents exposed to social inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean: a scoping review

“…Few studies investigated the role of gender in perpetuating social inequality. This research sheds light on traditional patriarchal norms (sometimes based on religious belief), exposing women to greater social and financial vulnerability ( 46 , 47 ). When gender inequalities were conjoined with socioeconomic stratification (class), compelling evidence of social inequality emerged.…”