Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with the Psychological Maltreatment and Neglect of Child Laborers in Rural Bangladesh

Ahad, Md. Abdul; Parry, Yvonne Karen; Willis, Eileen; Ullah, Shahid

doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/1085111

Health & Social Care in the Community

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Abstract Background Methods and Materials Results Discussion Conclusion Data Availability Conflicts of Interest Acknowledgments Supplementary Materials References Copyright Related Articles

Research Article | Open Access

Volume 2024 | Article ID 1085111 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/1085111

Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with the Psychological Maltreatment and Neglect of Child Laborers in Rural Bangladesh

Md. Abdul Ahad,^1,2Yvonne Karen Parry,²Eileen Willis,^2,3and Shahid Ullah⁴

Academic Editor: Qing-Wei Chen

Received17 Jun 2023

Revised07 Dec 2023

Accepted26 Mar 2024

Published08 Apr 2024

Abstract

Globally, child labor and maltreatment are considered serious public health concerns. Many child laborers in the informal sector are subjected to psychological abuse and neglect that is often akin to slavery. Our study examined the prevalence of these two forms of maltreatment among child laborers in rural Bangladesh, as well as the associated risk factors. Based on the snowball sampling technique, this study surveyed 100 child laborers employed in agricultural and domestic work in rural areas of the Sunamganj district, Bangladesh. The structured questionnaire utilizes the ICAST-CH instrument. To analyze the data, both simple and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted using two statistical software packages, SPSS and STATA. The study concluded that more than half of the child laborers have experienced psychological maltreatment “sometimes” in the form of being screamed at and insulted over the past year. In the past year, over 40% of respondents indicated they were “sometimes” deprived of food and drink and were not well cared for when they became ill. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that parents of psychologically maltreated child laborers had low educational backgrounds. A higher risk of neglect was observed among child laborers who worked for extended hours for their employers and whose families possessed limited land. In spite of the high prevalence of psychological maltreatment and neglect of child laborers in Bangladesh, the issue appears to be ignored. More comprehensive and rigorous scientific studies are required to bring about policy change.

1. Background

Child labor is widespread. In recent years, the proportion of child laborers aged below 18 years has dramatically increased. The International Labor Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) (2021) have reported that it accounts for almost 1 in 10 children worldwide. Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, the number of child laborers around the world was 160 million, as reported by the ILO in 2020. Approximately 70% of child laborers work in agriculture, while only 19.7% and 10.3% work in services and industry, respectively. Notably, 122.7 million of the 160 million children are employed in rural areas [1–3]. The ILO estimates that almost 17 million children in South Asia are engaged in unauthorised labor, with India having the highest number (5.8 million) of child laborers followed by Bangladesh (5.0 million), Pakistan (3.4 million), and Nepal (2.0 million) [4]. In Bangladesh, more than 31% are employed in the agriculture sector while around 273,000 children are involved in domestic labor [5, 6]. However, most of the existing studies emphasize on the economic aspect of child labor and occupational health within the workplace [7]; delap, 2001; [8]. In addition to physical injuries, child laborers in developing and least-developed countries are at considerable risk of mental illnesses [9]. While child labor itself generates a number of health risks, intentional maltreatment exacerbates this situation [10, 11]. This study focused on the psychological abuse and neglect of children who are in labor.

Child psychological maltreatment (CPsyM) denotes inflicting emotional harm which may include repeated verbal abuse of a child in the form of shouting, threats, confinement, and degrading or humiliating criticism, while child neglect involves depriving the child of necessities or denying their human rights [12, 13]. A number of studies have estimated the prevalence of these types of maltreatment of children across countries and cultures. A recent meta-analysis reported that globally, around 39% of children have experienced CPsyM in 2023 [14]. Another study estimated that globally, 16.3% of children are physically neglected and 18.4% have experienced emotional neglect [15]. In comparison to the global prevalence, studies in the context of South Asia reveal that child maltreatment is highly prevalent in South Asian regions [13, 16]. The rate of CPsyM and child neglect in India was observed to be more than 73% and 66.9%, respectively, in a study conducted by Kumar et al. [13]. Likewise, in Bangladesh, the lifetime prevalence of CPsyM was found to be more than 97%, and child neglect is estimated at 78% [17].

There are numerous studies on child abuse, but the question remains, which group of children is most likely to be maltreated? According to prior studies, the workplace is often cited as one of the most vulnerable environments for children to suffer abuse [18, 19]. In two different studies in Turkey, the rate of CPsyM among child laborers was estimated at more than 50% [20, 21]. Nearly 66–79% of Pakistani child laborers experience CPsyM [22]. Child laborers who work in the informal sectors of Bangladesh, such as agriculture or third-party domestic households, are more highly prone to CPsyM than other forms of maltreatment [19, 23]. While research on the estimation of CPsyM is abundant, similar studies on the neglect of child laborers are largely unexplored, although Pandey et al. [24] found that more than 17% of Indian children with work histories are deprived of basic necessities. Domestic child laborers in Bangladesh are deprived of access to education and health care [6].

Since children who experience abuse in the workplace are typically different from children in general, the causes are also more diverse. Child labor is indisputably an outcome of poverty which is also a result of the parents’ occupation or unemployment [25]; Delap, 2001 and; [26]. Apart from household financial instability, parental illiteracy also fuels the risk of children experiencing abuse [17]. Research findings on child labor abuse show that the children’s internal vulnerabilities are also responsible for their exposure to psychological maltreatment and neglect. This includes their young age, dropping out of school, a lack of technical skills, living arrangements at work rather than home, extended working hours, and low wages [19, 21, 27, 28]. Bangladesh’s informal economy hosts a large number of child laborers, and it is likely that their experiences of psychological abuse and neglect present different risk factors than those experienced by children in the general population [5, 29]. It is also presumed that the systematic exploration of these factors will assist in policy formulations for eradicating child labor. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the prevalence and possible risk factors associated with the CPsyM and neglect of child laborers in rural Bangladesh.

2. Methods and Materials

2.1. Study Setting

This cross-sectional study was conducted in three Upazilas (subdistrict) of Sunamganj district, Bangladesh, namely, Bishwambarpur, Dharmapasha, and Doarabazar. A census report revealed that 69.65% of the 7- to 14-year-old population in the district had dropped out of secondary school, and 15% of the children work in the labor market. Based on three criteria, including higher illiteracy rates, poverty rates, and agricultural holdings, the three subdistricts were purposefully selected for the study [5, 30].

2.2. Participants

The snowball sampling method was utilized to collect data from 100 child laborers aged 10 to 17 years engaged in agricultural and third-party domestic labor. Following the definition provided by the ILO and UNICEF, child labourers were selected for this study if they were aged between 5 and 11 years who works at least 1 hour for a wage, or 28 hours in domestic work per week, or children aged 12 to 14 years who work at least 14 hours of economic activity, or 28 hours in domestic work per week, or aged 15 to 17 years who work 43 hours of economic or domestic work per week [31]. Our survey included child laborers who were working at the time of the survey in order to obtain the most up-to-date information. Due to the fact that the participants are marginalized children, snowball or chain referrals were used since it may have been difficult to reach them randomly [32]. As per the method proposed by Lwanga & Lemeshow [33] , the sample size was determined based on the parameters such as the proportion of child maltreatment (P) (82.41%) in Bangladesh [34], a 95% confidence interval (z), and an absolute precision of 7% (E). This resulted in 114 child laborers. Later, the dropout rate was 20%. This sample size calculation was based on an exact Clopper–Pearson two-sided confidence intervals for one proportion. PASS software was used to calculate the sample size [35]. Children over the age of 10 were selected since they are capable of understanding and responding to the questions [36].

2.3. Data Collection Tools

A structured questionnaire was administered in the field to collect data. In line with the explanatory variables identified and measured in previous studies [19, 21, 37], the present study collected data on a range of sociodemographic, economic, and health characteristics of child laborers. This study focused on age, education, occupational status, parental educational and occupational background of child laborers, and drug abuse in the household and workplaces. It is noteworthy that the structured questionnaire contains a number of items from the validated ICAST-CH tools relating to the psychological maltreatment and neglect of children. The ICAST instrument was developed by the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) as gold standard measures of child maltreatment. Several studies have confirmed that this tool is reliable and valid in various national and cultural contexts of South Asian countries [13, 17, 38]. According to Chang et al. [39], the internal consistency level of the ICAST-CH items ranges between 0.71 and 0.89.

There has been no specific version of the ICAST questionnaire designed for child laborers. Nevertheless, the maltreatment items included in the ICAST-CH were considered relevant and sufficient for assessing the degree of maltreatment at work and home [40]. As part of the ICAST-CH questionnaire, eight psychological items and six items related to neglect were included in the structured questionnaire [13, 41, 42]. These items were considered applicable to the Bangladeshi context [17]. Children were asked to rate their experiences of psychological abuse and neglect over the past year on four criteria: “many times in the past year,” “sometimes in the past year,” “not in the past year, but this has happened,” and “never.” The rank order of these responses is 3, 2, 1, and 0, respectively. For each participant, the mean score for each item of psychological maltreatment or neglect ranged between 0 and 3. In each case of psychological maltreatment and neglect of child laborers, participants had the option of choosing one of these responses.

The English questionnaire was translated into Bengali and then translated back into English for comparison. The translation was carried out by three bilingually certified transcribers and verified by two academic research experts. We tested the Bengali translation of the questionnaires on three children aged 10 to 17 years and found them to be understandable.

Additionally, child laborers reported data in this study revealed an accepted level of reliability for the item scales of both psychological maltreatment and neglect of the ICAST-CH instrument. This study found that the Cronbach alphas for these item scales related to psychological maltreatment and neglect ranged between 0.60 and 0.81.

2.4. Collection of Data

Child laborers were surveyed face-to-face using the structured questionnaire. The survey was conducted by three field investigators (data collectors) due to restrictions associated with the COVID-19 outbreak [43]. Field investigators were trained over the course of three days by the principal researcher, who explained the survey and provided techniques for approaching young child laborers. Training was provided to data collectors on how to establish rapport, obtain consent, maintain confidentiality, avoid conflict, and respond appropriately. Three face-to-face questionnaire surveys were conducted with child laborers as a trial and to determine the suitability of the questionnaire. In order to resolve any issues that occurred during data collection, the principal researcher regularly communicated with data collectors via Skype. Surveys were conducted between April 2021 and June 2021. The data was regularly checked by the data collectors and uploaded to a password-protected Google Drive. In order to analyse the collected data, the data were transferred into an Excel sheet and then also exported to SPSS after the data collection was completed.

2.5. Data Analysis

The children’s sociodemographic characteristics were expressed as absolute and relative frequencies. We calculated the mean of psychological maltreatment and neglect items for each participant. A normal Q-Q plot and a frequency histogram were used to verify the normality of the data. To determine the risk factors associated with psychological maltreatment and neglect as a whole, we performed both simple and multivariable linear regression analysis. A noteworthy feature of the study was that proximal variables with a significant value of less than or equal to 0.2 in simple linear regression models were selected as candidates for inclusion in the extended analysis and entered into the multivariate analysis simultaneously. It is evident that some insignificant predictor variables from the univariate analyses can have substantial significance if they are examined in a more comprehensive manner (i.e., multivariable analysis) [44]. To provide a more accurate understanding of explanatory factors, these potential variables were included in the multivariable regression analysis. We tested the assumptions of the model by examining the linear relationship between independent and dependent variables, the normality of residuals, the multicollinearity, and the homogeneity of variances. Adjusted R-squared was used to determine the model’s goodness of fit. A two-sided test was performed for all analyses with a significance level of less than 0.05. The statistical analyses were carried out according to the study objectives using IBM SPSS software version 26 and Stata software version 16.1.0.

2.6. Ethical Consideration

For the purpose of conducting this study, formal ethical approval was obtained from the Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee of the University (inserted on acceptance). In addition, permission was sought from a Bangladeshi university to conduct the study.

The data collectors presented the study description and purpose to the child laborers and ensured that they gave their consent to participate in the survey. In the course of the survey session, it was explained to them that they could withdraw from answering any questions. For their participation, the children were assured of confidentiality and compensated with $2.5AUD (157 BDT). In view of the fact that many of them may not have been literate, the data collectors read out the questions and filled out the form on their behalf.

3. Results

3.1. Demographic Characteristics of Child Laborers

Child laborers recruited in this study ranged in age from 10‒17 years, with the majority (68%) falling between the ages of 13 and 15 years. More than 60% were not enrolled in schools. Seventy percent of child laborers worked in the agricultural sector, and above 58% were earning less than BDT2000 per month. The exploitative nature of employment is reflected in the estimation of working hours, with more than 63% of the child laborers working at least 5–8 hours a day followed by above 30% who toiled more than 9 hours a day. Around 35.7% of child laborers were accommodated at their employer’s house or workplace at night.

More than 76% of child laborers reported that their mothers had no formal educational qualifications. Nearly half of child laborers stated their father was a farmer, and above 15% said they were unemployed. Over 77% of child laborers indicated that their families did not own land outside of their household. Furthermore, above 40% of child laborers responded that their coworkers were addicted to drugs, and nearly a similar proportion of child laborers revealed that their family members were drug addicted. These demographic data are presented in Table 1.

3.2. Prevalence of Psychological Maltreatment and Neglect of Child Laborers

3.2.1. Prevalence of Psychological Maltreatment of Child Laborers

Table 2 shows that almost all child laborers reported enduring loud and aggressive screaming (96%), with 52.1% of them sometimes experiencing this CPsyM behaviour. Over half were sometimes victimised by being called names, cursed, or had nasty comments said to them sometimes in the past year, while nearly 45% of child laborers experienced emotional bullying (teased or embarrassed) by others sometimes in the past year which made them feel sad or bad. Likewise, above 42% felt ashamed or embarrassed in front of others sometimes in the past year. Additionally, a considerable proportion of child laborers were sometimes (35.4%) locked out of their homes for an extended period in the past year.

3.2.2. Prevalence of Neglect of Child Laborers

As shown in Table 3, in the past year, above 45% of child laborers were sometimes deprived of adequate food and drink, while more than 43% reported not being treated well sometimes when they were ill in the past year. Furthermore, over 40% of child laborers have worn dirty and torn clothes or shoes sometimes in the past year.

3.3. Simple Linear Regression Analysis of Risk Factors Associated with the Psychological Maltreatment and Neglect of Child Laborers

According to Table S1 (Supplementary Table S1), child laborers whose mothers studied up to primary education had a 0.28 scores lower risk of experiencing CPsyM compared to those whose mothers had no formal education. The children in families with additional land outside the household tended to be more psychologically maltreated compared to those in families without additional land. The findings of Table S2 (Supplementary Table S2) indicate that older child laborers have had a reduced risk of being neglected by a score of 0.24 in comparison to those of younger ages. Table S2 also revealed that child labourers who were enrolled in schools were more likely to be neglected than children working without schooling. Moreover, compared to child laborers in the agricultural sector, domestic child laborers had an increased risk of being neglected by a score of 0.25. These potential variables assisted in developing multiple linear regression models.

3.3.1. Multiple Linear Regression Analysis of Risk Factors Associated with the CPsyM of Child Laborers

Figure 1 illustrates that both the mothers’ level of education and land ownership patterns are significant predictors of CPsyM of child laborers. There is an inverse relationship between the CPsyM and the educational level of mothers.

Child laborers whose mothers who studied up to primary level had a reduced risk of being neglected by a score of 0.29 (β = −0.29, 95% CI = −0.52, −0.07, ) as compared to those with mothers who never attended school. Family land ownership patterns also posed a risk of CPsyM of child laborers as the study revealed that it increased by 0.24 scores among child laborers when their family, owned additional land outside of their household land (β = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.47, ) compared to those who had no additional land outside of their household land.

3.3.2. Multiple Linear Regression Analysis of Risk Factors Associated with the Neglect of Child Laborers

Figure 2 demonstrates that both extended working hours and additional land ownership patterns are significantly associated with the neglect of child laborers. Child laborers who have been working for extended hours (5−8 hours/day) were at an increased risk of being neglected by a score of 0.51 (β = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.14, 0.88, ) compared to those who worked 1−4 hours/day. Furthermore, the risk of neglect among child laborers reduced by a score of 0.27 (β = −0.27, 95% CI = −0.53, −0.01, ) among those whose families owned additional land outside their household land compared with those whose families had no additional land.

4. Discussion

Globally, child labor is on the rise [3]. Regardless of sectors, these children are more likely to be maltreated than any other group of children [18, 19]. Maltreatment compounds the health risks of child laborers, making it a critical public health concern. This study examined CPsyM and neglect of child laborers in the agricultural and domestic sectors of rural Bangladesh. The study is supported by previous research on the rising prevalence of maltreatment of child laborers [18, 24, 45]. According to our study, over 86% of agricultural and domestic child laborers in the past year have been psychologically maltreated (e.g., screaming, and called names or cursed), while over seventy percent have been neglected in terms of lack of access to food and water.

The findings of the current study show that child laborers in Bangladesh are more likely to be subjected to CPsyM than child laborers in many other countries. For example, Dhakal et al. [45] and Pandey et al. [24] estimated that less than half of child laborers in Nepal and India have been subjected to CPsyM, respectively. However, Moayad et al. [28] reported a 70% prevalence of CPsyM among child laborers in Iran. In addition, studies that have utilized ICAST instruments demonstrate that children, in general, are most likely to be subjected to shouting, screaming and being called insulting names as a form of CPsyM [13, 17, 41, 46]. This is echoed in this study for child laborers. Children in the Bengali community are frequently humiliated by the use of offensive language [47]. Haque et al. [17] reported that 66.7% of Bangladeshi children were subjected to shouting, yelling, or screaming during the past year, followed by 32.5% who were insulted and called names, and 20% were cursed.

Compared to other forms of abuses, child neglect has received less attention in the area of child protection [48]. There are no previous studies that have examined neglect among child laborers, despite the fact that it is a frequent form of abuse [49]. The current study estimates that nearly 70% of child laborers have been deprived of food and safe drinking water in the past year. This indicates that child laborers are more neglected than children in general [13, 50]. A global meta-analysis revealed that worldwide, 16.3% of children are victims of physical neglect [48] while a study carried out in Bangladesh estimates that 11% of children, in general, are neglected [17]. Pandey et al. [24] found that nearly 17.4% of children in labor are neglected in India, which is two-three times lower than those of the current study. While children, in general, are highly affected by unmet medical needs, care, and feelings of lack of worth [13, 17, 41], child workers are mostly vulnerable to deprivation of food and safe drinking water. For child domestic workers in Bangladesh, neglect takes the form of a lack of education, leisure activities, days off, and few facilities within the workplaces [29, 51].

Our study confirms that family factors such as maternal education and land ownership patterns reinforce the possibility of CPsyM among child laborers. These are also echoed by prior studies [16, 26, 52]. Children usually have a reduced risk of experiencing maltreatment when their parents are educated, a finding supported by previous research [16, 52]. Illiterate parents in Bangladesh are forced to ignore the developmental needs of their children using them as a source of income [53, 54], leading to an increase in maltreatment [16, 55].

In this study, the land ownership patterns of families had both a positive relationship with the CPsyM and an inverse relationship with the neglect of child laborers. The lack of land ownership reflects poor economic resources in households. A decrease in family resources may increase the risk of CPsyM [16, 19]. However, the current study found that child laborers in families with additional land resources were more prone to emotional victimization. Contrary to this, another study argues that children from land-rich households are often motivated to engage in child labour, which may result in abuses [56]. We also found that neglect is reduced among children who live in land-rich households similar to several prior studies [16, 19]. Research has shown that families with greater economic resources have a lower likelihood of maltreatment and neglect of their children [16, 17, 57]. As is evident, many child laborers from poor families work long hours, often beyond eight hours per day [58, 59]. In the informal sectors, of Bangladesh, children may work long hours for very low wages [60]. The current study estimated that these child laborers are significantly neglected from fundamental rights both at home (such as being deprived of food or drinking) and at work (such as a lack of training for apprentices), which is consistent with the findings of the study conducted by Öncü et al. [21]. Pinzon-Rondon et al. [61] also found that extended working hours are associated with a higher incidence of workplace abuse and neglect of child laborers.

A number of internal vulnerable traits of child laborers were identified as significant risk factors for neglect from the simple linear regression analysis. The young age of child laborers is a contributing factor. Several previous studies have also demonstrated the risk of neglect among younger child laborers both at home and in the workplace [16, 28, 62]. These children are most likely to work for extended working hours, which further leads to dropping out of school [63]. Our study found that neglect is significantly prevalent among out-of-school child laborers, similar to many prior studies [19, 64]. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) (2013), 69% of child laborers in Bangladesh do not attend school [5, 65]. The school dropout rate is higher among domestic child laborers in Bangladesh [29]. Among domestic child laborers, neglect is significantly prevalent. Many previous studies show that children in domestic labor are deprived of education, medical care, leisure, or actual wages [29, 66, 67], findings consistent with the current study.

Addressing the issues of child labor maltreatment requires strong policy responses. Primarily, sufficient work needs to be done on the agricultural labor and service front to address the hazardous conditions that children confront in these areas. One major initiative would be to strengthen policies that support school attendance. A motivator would be to tie financial support to school attendance. If poor families were encouraged to send their children to school through financial incentives, this would go some way to addressing the issue. A second approach would be to address labor laws. Currently, the national labor laws of Bangladesh do not take into account children working in informal settings [68, 69]. As a result, young children continue to work excessive hours in many informal labor markets and are subjected to maltreatment. Relevant reforms of existing labor laws or the development of new labor regulations that set the permissible working hours for children in Bangladesh that were enforced would go some way toward ameliorating child labor maltreatment. Both restrictions on the hours children might work, in tandem with incentives to attend school would go some way to alleviating the psychological maltreatment and neglect among child laborers. Although to be effective these policies need to be policed.

4.1. Limitations of the Study

This study is limited to child laborers employed in agriculture and domestic households in one region of Bangladesh. Only children aged between 10 and 17 years were surveyed. Given that the largest proportion of children in Bangladesh fall under the age group of 6−11 years, but this population was not captured [5]. The study was limited to 100 participants on account of the difficulties encountered in reaching them as a result of various public health measures imposed during the COVID-19 outbreak. The quantitative data were also collected through retrospective self-reports, which may lead to an under-reporting of child labor maltreatment due to recall difficulties.

5. Conclusion

This study reveals that CPsyM and neglect are highly prevalent among child laborers. Illiteracy, lack of land ownership, and extended working hours of child laborers are all significant predictors of both CPsyM and neglect. The study suggests specific initiatives that need to be taken to combat maltreatment and neglect among children employed in agricultural and domestic labor.

Data Availability

The cross-sectional data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Acknowledgments

All the authors equally contributed to this article. The first author prepared the first draft of the manuscript. The first, second, and fourth authors designed the methodology and assisted in the analysis in the study. The first and third author contributed to the discussion section of this study. The work was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (AGRTP).

Supplementary Materials

Table S1: a simple linear regression analysis of risk factors associated with the psychological maltreatment of child laborers. Table S2: a simple linear regression analysis of risk factors associated with the neglect of child laborers. (Supplementary Materials)

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Copyright © 2024 Md. Abdul Ahad et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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