Effects of household characteristics on child labor

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of household characteristics on child labour. The objectives for this study were to identify the different household characteristics that contribute to child labor, examine the relationship between household characteristics and child labor and to examine the relationship between individual characteristics and child labour. A two-stage stratified sampling design was used. The study targeted to interview 10 households per EA, implying a total sample of 16,510 households was targeted. The data processing largely involved: the design of questionnaires in the Survey Solution’s designer interface as well as the inclusion of consistency checks, skip patterns, and validation rules. The application was tested for the flow of questions and entries before training of the field staff. From the study findings, the household characteristics associated with child labour were parents’ occupation, household poverty, parents level of education, household working age population and availability of parents. The individual characteristics associated with child labour were identified to be schooling status, orphan status and physical ability The study therefore recommends that the government should develop strategies to reduce or eradicate child labor activities, enforce policies on child labor spelt out in the international agreements it has signed and the constitution which spell out the rights of the children, educate the society about child labour and its effects and implement effective protective measures Areas of further research include: Conduction child labour-based studies in specific areas of the country to understand the magnitude of the problem, Reviewing the existing child labour initiatives, experiences and lessons learned for further interventions and Conducting studies in this area, to unveil reasons for engagement in a child labour