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

Table 3

Other potential correlates of lifetime paid work among children aged 9–13 years (𝑛=212) in Embu, São Paulo, Brazil.

Other potential correlates^a,b	Lifetime paid work		OR (95% CI)	P
	Yes	No
	N (%)	N (%)
Child gender
Female (reference)	7/106 (6.6)	99/106 (93.4)
Male	10/106 (9.4)	96/106 (90.6)	1.47 (0.54–4.03)	0.448
Maternal education (years)
8 or more (reference)	6/77 (7.8)	71/77 (92.2)
0–7	11/135 (8.1)	124/135 (91.9)	1.05 (0.37–2.96)	0.927
Mother working for pay
Yes (reference)	12/126 (9.5)	114/126 (90.5)
No	5/86 (5.8)	81/86 (94.2)	1.71 (0.58–5.03)	0.329
Maternal mental health^c
No common disorders (reference)	12/149 (8.1)	137/149 (91.9)
Common disorders present	5/63 (7.9)	58/63 (92.1)	0.98 (0.33–2.92)	0.977
Father working for pay
Yes (reference)	12/143 (8.4)	131/143 (91.6)
No^d	5/69 (7.2)	64/69 (92.8)	1.17 (0.40–3.47)	0.774
Social isolation^e
No (reference)	14/202 (6.9)	188/202 (93.1)
Yes	3/10 (30.0)	7/10 (70.0)	5.76 (1.34–24.72)	0.036

OR: odds ratio; CI: confidence interval.
aChild age (not included in this table) was not considered a correlate since similar mean scores were obtained by children exposed and non-exposed to lifetime paid work (11.2±1.4 and 10.8±1.4; 𝑃=0.243).
bFamily SES (not included in this table) was considered a significant correlate since a lower mean score was obtained by children exposed to lifetime paid work compared to non-exposed peers (11.5±3.6 versus 13.7±4.3; 𝑃=0.037).
cAccording to the SRQ-20, common mental health disorders present (total score > 7) versus no common disorders (total score 0–7).
dOne child who never worked for pay had no father.
eDefined as mother never counting on family members and counting very little/not at all on neighbors.