Social Norms and Family Child Labor: A Systematic Literature Review
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Social Norms, Child Work and Family Child Labor
“It is impossible to draw a clear and unambiguous line between ‘child work’ (the more acceptable forms of children’s work, which are relatively unharmful and in cases may even be beneficial) and ‘child labour’, the unacceptable, exploitative and harmful forms of children’s work, a ‘social evil’. Most attempts to draw such a line are either too general, vague and circular to be of use, or if they try to be concrete and specific, are too contradictory and illogical, and out of line with the views of children themselves.”[27] (p. 837)
1.2. Social Norms and Legislation on Child Labor
- What social norms precipitate child labor practices?
- How are international child labor legislation/standards normatively interpreted in the context of child labor?
2. Method
2.1. Search Strategy
2.2. Inclusion Criteria
- Articles reported qualitative or quantitative evidence (or both) on cultural norms that influence child labor practices. Additionally, (or) reported evidence on the normative interpretations of international legislation that seeks to prevent child labor practices.
- Articles reported findings from the views of any of the following groups (or a combination of any of them): community members, children, parents and social service workers.
- Articles are empirical studies published in English, between 2000 and October 2021. The benchmark of 2000 was chosen in line with the promulgation of the ILO standards on Worst Forms of Child Labor (1999), (n.182), ensure that the findings are relevant to current legislation and guidelines on child labor.
2.3. Search Outcomes and Screening
2.4. Quality Appraisal
2.5. Analysis Procedure
3. Results
3.1. Study Characteristics
3.2. Informal Apprenticeship Norm
“In my own situation, I used to be a newspaper vendor on the streets. I had to sell newspapers on the street of Accra in the morning before going to school. My parents used to tell me that they were training me to be tough in life so that I’ll be capable of facing the challenges of life.”[61] (p. 474)
“I want them to start working now, so that they get used to working and not become loose.”[68] (p. 46)
“Our culture teaches our children to believe that work socialization is meant to provide training which will ensure a better life in the future.”[61] (p. 472)
“Whatever work I assign to my children is not intended to harm them but to train them to have strong work ethics that will in turn help them to have a better future.”[64] (p. 59)
“I actually started working at age two–not really working though. I went with my cousin on herbike to sell refreshing drinks and tea to people in the market. I just accompanied her. I started working on my own when I was 12.”[67] (p. 240)
“Engaging my children in fishing is simply a traditional system of schooling which doesn’t violate the rights of my children.”[64] (p. 60)
“Why should I enrol my children in school if they’re going to be unemployed after finishing? For me, I believe it will make more sense to engage them in my farming for them to acquire some skills that will help them in their future lives.”“Why should I enrol my children in school if they’re going to be unemployed after finishing? For me, I believe it will make more sense to engage them in my farming for them to acquire some skills that will help them in their future lives.”[64] (p. 59)
3.3. Gender Norm
“I want to use my personal experience as an example. I was the only girl amongst seven boys, so I needed to be familiar with the demands of marriage life as is required of all girls. When I was living with my siblings, I used to wash, clean and sweep for them because I was being prepared for future life. The role of a girl in the household is to provide services to the boys.”[62] (p. 13)
“If men do these jobs [housework] everyone will call him a woman.”[72] (p. 13)
3.4. Asset Value of Children
“Fishing is a very difficult task and parents need more labour to be able to carry out the task. In my view, government should allow children to support their parents and supplement household income. At the low income we get from our fishing business, how can we hire only adult labourers?”[62] (p. 10)
“This is because there is inadequate mechanisation of artisanal fishing industry. The work is quite difficult, and fishermen need more hands.”[64] (p. 60)
“I think many parents are using their children to work because their work is not mechanised. The State needs to support parents to mechanise their work to help eliminate child labour.”[64] (p. 60)
3.5. Value of Formal Education
“Parents tell us that they know children in the community who have successfully completed their education, yet they don’t have jobs. Some parents believe putting their children into farm work is worthwhile because their children develop their employment skills that get them ready jobs.”[64] (p. 60)
“I swear to God, I’m not after their money…. They don’t work and they don’t care about school. I’m saying if they work, maybe they will understand the value of school and go to school.”[68] (p. 46)
“I say maybe if they work, going to school will feel sweeter [better] to them. For instance, because work will be too hard, school will be [easier].”[68] (p. 46)
3.6. Sustenance and Succession of Family Occupation
“Most parents are farmers in these rural communities, and very often they want their children to help them on the farms because they want to socialise their children to take over from them. However, this cultural practice is sometimes abused by some parents. Some parents engage their children in work in times that those children are supposed to be school. Children support their parents on the farms to perform tasks such as weeding, planting of seedling and burning unwanted woods in the farm. Many boys work for 8 h on the average in a day.”[62] (p. 9)
“I have been in this community long enough to know that many farmers want their children to be socialised and take over from them and therefore they won’t agree to total elimination of child labour.”[62] (p. 10)
“And also we have to prepare the future generation of farmers. So, when the child is in the farm, there are some activities that he can do and some other activities that they can’t. He must assist. He look at his father working. And then the child keep it in his mind. So the child, during his free time, his holidays, must go to farm and see what his father is doing.”[65] (p. 8)
“…I belong to the old school, where you ‘bring up the child the way he should go’ so that if you are a child in a farming family you should be able to learn about farming from your parents…”[73] (p. 551)
“Our family businesses will collapse if we take our children out of fishing. It is part of our culture for children to get deeply involved in what we (parents) do.”[62] (p. 11)
3.7. Obedience
“Ghanaian culture gives parents more power over their children. Thus, there is virtually no children’s rights to participation in family decisions since parents’ views on matters concerning the child carries a lot of weight. It is quite difficult for children to disobey their parents in matters relating to child labour.”[61] (p. 472)
3.8. Child Rights in Child Labor
4. Discussion
4.1. Social Norms Precipitating Child Labor
4.2. Normative Interpretation of Child Labor Standards
4.3. Implication for Child Labor Practice and Research
4.4. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Keywords and Word Combinations |
---|
Child labor * AND culture OR social norm Child labor * AND legislation OR policy |
Child work * AND culture OR norm AND Child work AND policy OR law |
Child labor AND social standard OR culture AND Working children AND culture OR socialization |
Hazardous work OR Labor AND culture AND Worst Form of Child Labor AND child right |
Reference | Study Method | Sample | Location | Child Labor Activity Explored | Study Purpose | Key Findings |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adonteng-Kissi [61] | In-depth interviews, focus group interviews and observation | 60 parents | Ghana | Farming and Fishing | To explore parents’ perception on the nature of child labor | (A) Children engage in child labor in order to take over from their parents’ and the family’s business (B) Children are required to engage in family business as a form of preparation for marriage and future career (C) Without children working family business could collapse |
Adonteng-Kissi [62] | In-depth interviews, focus group interviews and observation | 60 participants including parents and social service workers | Ghana | Farming and Fishing | Explore the cultural challenges that inhibit the implementation of UNCRC’s provision of children’s right to provision, protection and participation in child labor | (A) Children are socialized to believe in child labor. (B) Parents saw rights as obstruction to socio-cultural child rearing practices (C) Legislation on children’s right were perceived as initiating western parenting styles on Africa. |
Adonteng-Kissi [64] | In-depth interviews, and focus group interviews | 60 parents, government workers, and workers of NGOs | Ghana | Fishing and Farming | Explore the causes of child labor in Ghana | (A) Children enhance competency and obtain farm ethics through working on family farms (B) Failure to work on family farms is a sign of disrespect (C) Children who engage in family farms secure better future. |
Akilova [67] | In-depth narrative interviews | 29 participants (12 parents and 17 children) | Tajikistan | General child labor and child work | Explore the pathways to child work and child labor in Tajikistan | (A) Child work is normalized in post-soviet Tajikistan (B) Children are required to work and contribute to their family income. |
Bahar [68] | In-depth interviews, demographic survey and observation | 27 low-income mothers | Turkey | General child labor | Explore mother’s beliefs and attitudes about child labor in Turkey | (A) Quest to teach children about work and life influenced parents to involve their children in work. (B) Child labor prevent children from the dangers associated with inner cities |
Baker & Hilton [69] | Ethnography | 162 children and youth | Nepal | Carpet industry | To explore western interpretation of children’s rights and its influence on child labor practices in Nepal | The success of child right promotion programs depends on socio-cultural interpretations. |
Adonteng-Kissi [66] | In-depth interviews, focus group interviews and survey | 400 survey and 60 parents. | Ghana | Fishing and Farming | To ascertain the impact of child labor policies on child labor in Ghana | (A) Legislations on child labor have had some impact on the rate of child labor, but not severe. (B) Cultural beliefs impede the implementation of child labor legislation. |
Berlan [70] | Ethnography and child-friendly participatory method | 84 children | Ghana | Cocoa | Explore the impact of micro-level factors on child labor in Ghana | Beliefs over the formative value of work-informed influenced child labor in cocoa. |
Bray [71] | Mixed method: Survey and ethnography | 5000 surveys in Cape Town and ethnographic engagement in Cape Peninsular | South Africa | Child domestic work | Explore children’s involvement in household work as a form of child labor. | (A) Child domestic activities is gendered with girls undertaking more maintenance roles. (B) Children are contracted by neighbors to engage in paid domestic work. (C) Children cannot refuse instructions from parents and elders to undertake hard work due to the cultural expectation of respect for elders. |
Adonteng-Kissi [63] | In-depth individual and focus group interviews | 60 parents and social service workers | Ghana | Fishing and Farming | Explore whether child labor violate human right. | (A) Parents consider child labor as part of the best interest of children (B) Children will become wayward if they are granted powers of decision making |
Busquet et al. [65] | In-depth individual and focus group interviews | 38 key informant interviews and 12 focus groups interviews | Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire | Cocoa | Explore the value chain processes in child labor within cocoa areas | (A) Child labor is enforced by the normative belief that children should follow the path of their parents, and children are required to undertake informal apprenticeship training to succeed in life. |
Delap [72] | In-depth interviews | 45 participants | Bangladesh | General child labor | Explore economic and cultural factors that underpin child labor | The type of work children will do at home or in the carpet industry is determined by gender roles. |
Krauss [73] | Mixed method: Survey and Interviews | 8687 household survey in the GLSS data, and 15 qualitative interviews with children and the Minister of Education | Ghana | General child labor | Explore monetary and non-monetary factors that influence child labor in sub-Saharan Africa | Structure of the economy and social norm of inheriting farming occupation are the main driving forces of child labor in Africa. |
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Abdullah, A.; Huynh, I.; Emery, C.R.; Jordan, L.P. Social Norms and Family Child Labor: A Systematic Literature Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 4082. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074082
Abdullah A, Huynh I, Emery CR, Jordan LP. Social Norms and Family Child Labor: A Systematic Literature Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(7):4082. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074082
Chicago/Turabian StyleAbdullah, Alhassan, Inès Huynh, Clifton R. Emery, and Lucy P. Jordan. 2022. "Social Norms and Family Child Labor: A Systematic Literature Review" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 7: 4082. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074082